Cult places and rituals in Malta

Abstract

Religion and cult beliefs in the Maltese islands had been established for millennia from the Neolithic Age. The great number of the megalithic temples all over the country testified of a strong and shared religious feeling up to the Bronze Age. At the beginning of the Iron Age and especially with the arrival of the Phoenicians, the echo of this feeling was still strong, as evidenced by the reuse of the Bronze Age megalithic temples of Tas-Silġ in southern Malta, Ras ir-Raħeb on the north-western coast of Malta and Ras il-Wardija on Gozo. The three sacred areas, notwithstanding their particularities and specific features, seem to share some other common issues, as the connection with the sea and the navigation and the relations to their agricultural hinterland