Malta · Series: Prehistoric Sites, Tarxien Temples

The temple complex is located in the present-day town of Tarxien in southeastern Malta. It consists of four interconnected cult buildings that were constructed and modified during different phases of the Maltese Neolithic. Their curved floor plans with semicircular chambers, monumental entrances and carefully placed limestone blocks are characteristic of the so-called Maltese temple culture. This culture developed an independent architecture without using metal tools or draft animals.

The furnishings included altars, stone containers and reliefs with spiral ornaments and depictions of animals. Among those depicted are cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Animal bones and other finds suggest that communal rituals and possibly animal sacrifices took place at the complex. However, the precise religious significance of the buildings and images is unknown. The lower part of an originally larger-than-life-size human stone figure also comes from Tarxien. Whether it represented a deity, a revered person or another figure cannot be determined with certainty.

After the end of the temple culture, the site was used again during the Bronze Age, among other purposes as a burial site for cremation burials. The discovery of the complex began in the early 20th century, after farmers came across large stone blocks while ploughing. The Maltese archaeologist Themistocles Zammit subsequently led systematic excavations.

Together with other complexes on Malta and Gozo, Tarxien forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Megalithic Temples of Malta” (“Megalithische Tempel von Malta”). This comprises several geographically separate temple sites that document different stages in the development of the same prehistoric building tradition. The coin issue forms part of a multi-year Maltese series presenting the country’s individual prehistoric UNESCO sites. Tarxien was therefore not selected on the occasion of a single anniversary, but as part of this systematic series.