The people who lived in Ġgantija some 5,600 years ago were no Flintstones. They did not walk around shouting “Ugga, ugga” and showing their rotten teeth. They did not have nests for hair and neither did they have armpit hair as long as their ankles.
They were civilised, healthy, clean people who were also geniuses. They lived in the most harmonious of societies, possibly the most egalitarian Malta has ever seen in the lifetime of its land. And because of this balanced social rapport, they were able to build one of the true wonders of the world: the Ġgantija temples in Xagħra.
This magnificent piece of architecture – older even than the Egyptian pyramids – was built by Maltese men and women. The first people had arrived here about 2,000 years earlier. By 3,600BC, they had settled into a society where everyone was equally important: it did not make a difference if you had boobs, if your hair was grey and your skin was wrinkly or if you had more muscle than others. Some looked European, others looked African – but no one cared about the colour of the skin at the time. What mattered was that you were a team player and that you cared about the common good.
Their ingenuity knew no bounds. They studied the movement of the sun and the moon in order to understand weather patterns for their farming. They raised animals and consumed them communally, so nothing would go to waste; they wove clothes from sheep’s wool; they made furniture from wood and were extremely artistic and deft with sculpting. They studied the medicinal value of herbs and even had treatments for arthritis.
They were stronger, taller and healthier than us. Their diets were a balance of meat, herbs and vegetables and the only sugar they consumed was in the form of figs or wild honey. They drank natural spring water with natural fluoride, so their teeth were even, straight and pearl-white. They took pride in grooming, plaited their hair in different styles and wore different kinds of jewellery. Look at the photo of the virtual reconstruction of one of the women found in Xagħra Circle. This is what they looked like 5,600 years ago.
We know all this from long years of painstaking archaeological excavations and research in prehistoric sites in Xagħra. I am proud to say that many, many moons ago, I was part of a team excavating the Xagħra Circle. Now, 20 years on, the results of years of study by Maltese and foreign archaeologists and scientists is helping us understand who our ancestors were and where we’re coming from.
Sometimes, I don’t think we realise this and how in awe we should be and how proud. At primary school, we should be taught to look in the mirror and repeat to ourselves every morning that our ancestors were the founders of the first amazing civilisation in the world.
We are not only stabbing the ingenuity of our ancestors in the back, we are also gashing our children’s future- Kristina Chetcuti
Sadly, a few thousand years later, something happened – we’re not sure what yet; perhaps a pandemic – and it all came to an end. And I very much fear that we never reached those glorious heights again. Rather, it’s been a slow but steady regression when it comes to our relationship with nature. We have now reached our lowest point.
The news, this past week, that the Planning Authority has received a proposal for the construction of a monstrosity of a block of garages and flats a stone’s throw away from the Ġgantija temples’ buffer zone is proof that we are back to the Neanderthal phase.
These Gozitan temples are a Unesco World Heritage site. The ugliness of this project which is waiting recommendation is twofold: 1) the damage that will be inflicted on the stone structures with the vibrations of the underground excavations for the garages and 2) the temples will be forever marked by the aesthetic blotch of this concrete building, which will be visible from the site.
And, then, we know that it won’t stop there. If X got a permit for a block of flats, Y will be submitting his proposal next week. Until, very soon, we’ll look up to see Ġgantija stifled among blocks of concrete.
Judging by its past performance, we can’t rely on the Planning Authority to do what is morally right. Also, we can’t expect anything from Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia, the product of ancestral scaredy-cats – he’ll just toe the line and do and say whatever he’s told. But, surely, José Herrera, the culture minister, can see the atrocity of all this?
Is it possible that there’s no other place where these 30 flats and car park can be built? Does it have to be right under our most precious building that our ancestors have left us?
This can only be foreboding. We are not only stabbing the ingenuity of our ancestors in the back, we are also gashing our children’s future. If we don’t care about our past, then we can only augur for a ghastly future.
It is women’s day tomorrow. Instead of the usual drivel about quotas and what not, let’s pay tribute to our foremothers and forefathers who were an example of a communal society which put common good ahead of all else.
God knows, we have loads to learn from them.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
twitter: @krischetcuti