DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0102
200
ARTHUR J. EVANS
fragments of Thora and Therasia.1 The remarkable steatopygous female
images found in the latter building, and absurdly called ' Cabiri,'2 find a
certain parallelism in the adipose marble figures from the prae-Mycenaean
sepultures of the Aegean world,3 but their even more striking conformity
with the figures from Naqada 4 belonging to the prehistoric race of Egypt
suggest in this case a still older Libyan tradition. The fundamental lines of
these megalithic monuments themselves recall the neolithic chambered
barrows, with terminal and lateral apses, as found throughout a large Iberic
area and, still farther afield, in Britain and the Channel Islands.
We have here then unquestionably in situ in the Maltese islands the
megalithic sanctuaries of an aniconic cult parallel to that of the Aegean world
and of the Semitic lands to the east of it. But the parallel gains additional
interest from the fact that we see the actual shrines of this primitive
pillar-worship invaded with decorative motives apparently from a Mycenaean
source. How far the externals of cult may have been influenced here in
other ways from that quarter it is impossible to say. In any case we are
brought very near that form of the Mycenaean pillar-worship, the shrines of
which have already been compared with the simple dolmen cells still found
in India. And what lends especial importance to the parallel is that we see
the cone and pillar representatives of spiritual beings associated in the case
of these Maltese monuments with structures that stand in a direct funereal
relation. In spite of the absence of any adequate archaeological record of
the excavations conducted at various times in these monuments there can be
no doubt that they served in part at least a sepulchral purpose. The recorded
discovery of a human skull in one chamber, the cists still visible in places
superimposed on one another, the abundance of pottery, all point to this
conclusion. We have here by all seeming the sanctuary of a heroic cult, in
which the aniconic image that represented the Departed also marked the
place of his last rest.
§ 30.—An Oriental Pillar Shrine in Macedonia, and the Associated Worship.
The attachment of the cillt of sacred pillars to sepulchral religion as
shown by examples from the Greek and Semitic lands, and again by the
megalithic structures of the Maltese islands, still asserts itself in the baetylic
worship, which has survived to our day under the cloak of Islam throughout
the Mohammedan world. It has been already noticed that the mosque at
1 These comparisons were pointed out by
me in a paper read at the Ipswich Meeting of
the British Association entitled 'Primitive
European Idols in the Light of Recent Dis-
coveries,'printed in the East Anglian Daily
Times, Sept. 19, 1895. Cf. too, Cretan Picto-
graphs, &c, p. 129.
- Caruana, Report on the Phoenician, &0.
Antiquities from Malta, pp. 30, 31 and photo-
graph ; P. et C, iii. p. 305, Tigs. 230, 231.
3 See Primitive Ettro]>ean Idols, &o. lor. cit.
To the steatopygous female figures from
Sparta described by Dr. Wolters (Ath. Mitth.
1891, p. 52, •"•«/'/•) may be added an example
from Patesia near Athens, now in the Ash-
molean Museum.
4 Petrie, Naijada and Ballas, PI. VI.
Tigs. 1-4, pp. 13, 14, 34.
ARTHUR J. EVANS
fragments of Thora and Therasia.1 The remarkable steatopygous female
images found in the latter building, and absurdly called ' Cabiri,'2 find a
certain parallelism in the adipose marble figures from the prae-Mycenaean
sepultures of the Aegean world,3 but their even more striking conformity
with the figures from Naqada 4 belonging to the prehistoric race of Egypt
suggest in this case a still older Libyan tradition. The fundamental lines of
these megalithic monuments themselves recall the neolithic chambered
barrows, with terminal and lateral apses, as found throughout a large Iberic
area and, still farther afield, in Britain and the Channel Islands.
We have here then unquestionably in situ in the Maltese islands the
megalithic sanctuaries of an aniconic cult parallel to that of the Aegean world
and of the Semitic lands to the east of it. But the parallel gains additional
interest from the fact that we see the actual shrines of this primitive
pillar-worship invaded with decorative motives apparently from a Mycenaean
source. How far the externals of cult may have been influenced here in
other ways from that quarter it is impossible to say. In any case we are
brought very near that form of the Mycenaean pillar-worship, the shrines of
which have already been compared with the simple dolmen cells still found
in India. And what lends especial importance to the parallel is that we see
the cone and pillar representatives of spiritual beings associated in the case
of these Maltese monuments with structures that stand in a direct funereal
relation. In spite of the absence of any adequate archaeological record of
the excavations conducted at various times in these monuments there can be
no doubt that they served in part at least a sepulchral purpose. The recorded
discovery of a human skull in one chamber, the cists still visible in places
superimposed on one another, the abundance of pottery, all point to this
conclusion. We have here by all seeming the sanctuary of a heroic cult, in
which the aniconic image that represented the Departed also marked the
place of his last rest.
§ 30.—An Oriental Pillar Shrine in Macedonia, and the Associated Worship.
The attachment of the cillt of sacred pillars to sepulchral religion as
shown by examples from the Greek and Semitic lands, and again by the
megalithic structures of the Maltese islands, still asserts itself in the baetylic
worship, which has survived to our day under the cloak of Islam throughout
the Mohammedan world. It has been already noticed that the mosque at
1 These comparisons were pointed out by
me in a paper read at the Ipswich Meeting of
the British Association entitled 'Primitive
European Idols in the Light of Recent Dis-
coveries,'printed in the East Anglian Daily
Times, Sept. 19, 1895. Cf. too, Cretan Picto-
graphs, &c, p. 129.
- Caruana, Report on the Phoenician, &0.
Antiquities from Malta, pp. 30, 31 and photo-
graph ; P. et C, iii. p. 305, Tigs. 230, 231.
3 See Primitive Ettro]>ean Idols, &o. lor. cit.
To the steatopygous female figures from
Sparta described by Dr. Wolters (Ath. Mitth.
1891, p. 52, •"•«/'/•) may be added an example
from Patesia near Athens, now in the Ash-
molean Museum.
4 Petrie, Naijada and Ballas, PI. VI.
Tigs. 1-4, pp. 13, 14, 34.