I read with interest the articles of Mr Andrew Sciberras and Ms Isabelle Vella Gregory (The Sunday Times, March 6, 13).
Mr Sciberras quite rightly says that there is evidence of Palaeolithic man in Malta. It is also true that there are similarities between the Malta-Siberia site and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, but he does not prove that a continuity of culture occurred.
Let me quote from a lecture delivered by Dr Charles Savona-Ventura and Dr Anton Mifsud.
The presence of Palaeolithic man on the Maltese Islands during the late Upper Pleistocene is to be expected when one considers that the islands were connected to the mainland by a well-defined land bridge.
The culture of Palaeolithic man was based on a hunter-gatherer economy, and he would have been expected to follow the southern migration of the deer herds. Palaeolithic man with his hunter-gather culture was unlikely to leave a major impact on his environment, in contrast to the later Neolithic man who modified the environment to suit his needs.
One would expect only scraps of material evidence of the presence of Palaeolithic man on the small area covered by the Maltese Islands. Evidence of Palaeolithic man has been described from various sites in Central Europe. In Sicily there is ample evidence of Palaeolithic man and his culture.
Professor Emmanuel Anati in 1990 described a number of prehistoric cave paintings at Ghar Hasan. These paintings included various animal figures, an anthropo-zoological image, various handprints and a variety of ideograms.
Another probably Palaeolithic painting depicting a bull - an animal which was apparently considered to be sacred - was discovered at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. It is probable that the Hypogeum was a natural cave complex, which was used by Palaeolithic man during the Ice Age.
Later (neolithic) civilisations artificially enlarged the cave system for death cult practices. During the architectural modifications, Neolithic man came across the still considered sacred bull depiction. This earlier painting was respected and conserved so that the cave wall where the bull was depicted remained in its natural state and the painting was not covered with the red ochre wash which covers the rest of the cave.
Ironically, a Palaeolithic painting conserved by primitive Neolithic man was erased by "civilised man" in the 1980s. Fortunately, this example of cave art has been preserved in the form of photographs taken during the discovery. A number of microlithic flints dating to the Palaeolithic period were found in various sites of the island.
The population of Palaeolithic man on the Maltese Islands could not have been very numerous and thus Palaeolithic human skeletal remains are scanty. Furthermore, Palaeolithic man generally buried his dead in caves.
These are the skeletal remains excavated from Ghar Dalam cave floor deposits:
1. A human hand bone excavated by J.H. Cooke (1892) in Trench IV in association with Cervus remains.
2. A taurodontised human upper first molar [Ma2] excavated by C. Rizzo (1917) in Despott's Trench No. II (second layer). This same layer also yielded some phalanges and part of a skull in association with "bones of stag and of a small rodent, probably a vole".
3. A taurodontised first milk molar excavated by G. Despott (1917) in Trench II (third layer) in association with stag remains.
4. A tooth and some phalanges excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Middle Trench (second layer) in association with deer, hippopotamus and vole remains.
5. Seven teeth (two incisors, one a canine excavated from beneath a stalagmitic layer about half an inch thick), a metacarpal and a phalanx excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Middle Trench (third layer) in association with deer, hippopotami and elephant remains.
6. One molar excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Outer Trench (second layer) in association with deer remains.
7. A tooth excavated by G. Despott (1918-20) in Outer Trench (fourth layer) in association with deer, fox, wolf and hippopotamus.
8. Molar tooth excavated by G. Sinclair at a depth described as two feet lower than that of G. Despott.
9. A tooth [Ma 1] excavated by G. Caton Thompson (1923) in association with hippopotamus and deer, but this layer was described as 'unstratified' and may have been disturbed.
10. Third left taurodontised molar [Ma 7] excavated by J. Baldacchino (1936).