As Heritage Malta sites and museums reopened this week, the agency announced that the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum skulls exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta has been extended until the end of October.

Entitled Alien Headaches? The Hypogeum Skulls Enigma, the exhibition was inaugurated last December and generated great interest up until the closure of museums and sites due to COVID-19 mitigation measures.

The Hypogeum skulls have captured popular imagination since they were unearthed, largely due to the fact that Sir Temi Zammit described them as being “of the long-headed type” during excavations in the first decade of the 20th century.

This exhibition presents a unique opportunity to observe the skulls closely, since they are usually kept in the reserve collection and had not been publicly exhibited since 1995.

Innovative scientific techniques are allowing the skulls to be studied from new perspectives which are leading to a richer and broader understanding of Neolithic people within the context of an island environment.

The exhibition shows how the skulls were examined from an archaeological, osteological and medical point of view.

The National Museum of Archaeology is open from Thursday to Sunday between 10am and 4.30pm.