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Ritual and Religion

 

 
Ritual and Religion

Malta Religion

The many altars found in the temples were obviously used for offerings of some sort, however there is absolutely no evidence of human sacrifice. This evidence of animal sacrifice also points to the ritual importance of animals in the community, people offered their animals, which were presumably highly valued, to their deities, perhaps this was to ensure continued animal fertility and to keep the balance with nature.

 


Another dimension is the relationship with the world of the dead. Libation holes in the paving, for example at Tarxien South, indicate the pouring of liquid offerings into the ground. Perhaps it was the blood of animals about to be sacrificed, an offering to appease the underworld deities. One small clue that shows a relationship with the underworld is found on a stone slab on Ggantija.

 


 
On the edge, there is a carved stone snake. In many mythological traditions, snakes are strongly associated with the underworld. To this one must add the ritual structures at Saflieni Hypogeum and Xaghra Circle, where there are areas clearly intended for worship.

 


Thus, a complex picture of religious practice emerges. On the one hand there are rituals conducted in temples, closely associated with the needs of the living community.

On the other hand, we have rituals conducted in places of the dead. The two are linked in many ways. Temples and cemeteries are strongly linked by their close proximity – they are located within metres of each other. The architectural elements found in temples are also reproduced in cemeteries, for example the trilithons at the Saflieni hypogeum.

 

Another interesting fact is found in the Oracle Chamber, on the second level of the Hypogeum.  There is a small oval niche at face level that allows amplification of only men and not women voice. If a man with a deep voice speaks into it, it produces a strong echo, that resonanates at 110 Herts and spreads throughout the burial site.

Research by Dr. Ian A. Cook and colleagues from UCLA, published in the journal Time and Mind in 2008, used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brain activity of volunteers while they listened to different frequencies of sound.

They found that at 110 hertz, the brain activity suddenly changed. The section of the brain responsible for language processing became relatively deactivated, and the areas related to mood, empathy and social behavior “switched on.”

Archeologists have not yet been able to explain how this sophisticated engineering came into being almost 6,000 years ago, but the ancient temple builders of Malta may have been some of the first to use acoustics in religious rituals. 

 

 

 

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