Bank of Valletta is currently organising a series of three Saturday morning educational visits for members of its Young Savers Club to Tarxien Temples. The first visit was held yesterday week, when over 20 children participated in this cultural activity.
On arriving at Tarxien Temples, the children were welcomed by Cikkurillu, the BoV Young Savers' mascot. The children were given a guided tour of the temples by Marlon Briffa, site officer from Heritage Malta, who explained the origins of the first temple builders and how the Tarxien Temples were discovered. He also gave an overview of the preservation projects currently being undertaken there.
The children participated actively and took a keen interest in Mr Briffa's presentation, asking intelligent questions. "What prompted the first native communities to build temples?" asked one. Another child was interested in finding out what the form of the temples represents and how our ancestors managed to handle such huge boulders to construct what, in their original state, were two-storey temples, using very primitive tools and equipment.
Adrian Sammut, manager at BoV's marketing department, explained that the bank has taken over the patronage of this important heritage site. "The preservation and promotion of local heritage is a key pillar of our involvement in the communities in which we operate. The BoV Tarxien Temples Project, being implemented by Heritage Malta in conjunction with Bank of Valletta, is seeing the bank investing Lm190,000 over a number of years to support our heritage. Our objective is to transform this World Heritage site into a unique attraction managed on truly professional lines and to very high standards," Mr Sammut said.
Tarxien Temples is the finest and most elaborate site of all temple sites in Malta both for its architecture as well as its internal decoration. The site, which covers an area of 4,200 m2, consists of four distinct temple units excavated by Sir Themistocles Zammit between 1915 and 1919.
This unique group of temples, dating from 3150 to 2500 BC, are the most complex of all temples in Malta. They comprise four temple units linked by a square court. They were the last to be built on the islands. The temples are renowned for the detail of their carvings, which include stone idols, domestic animals carved in relief, and altars and screens decorated with spiral designs and other patterns. Of particular note is the chamber set into a thick wall, which is famous for its reliefs of two bulls and a sow.
The site seems to have been used extensively for rituals, which probably involved animal sacrifice. Tarxien is also of great interest because it offers an insight into how the temples were constructed: stone rollers left outside the south temple were probably used for transporting the megaliths. Remains of cremation have also been found here, which indicates that the site was reused by later Bronze Age settlers (2400-1500 BC).