There is a slight problem with the use of the word ‘megalithic’ in the Maltese and Sicilian context.

While in Malta and Gozo this word normally refers to prehistoric remains, often dating back beyond 2000 BC, in Sicily any very large stone is megalithic, following the meaning of the Greek term ‘megalithos’, even after 900 BC.

Yet, there must be prehistoric megaliths in Sicily as well, dating back to before 2000 BC.

By way of example, large stones, or parts of giant columns erected in quantity in Sicily’s Sicel and Greek temples, can therefore rightly be said to be composed of megaliths, as at Selinunte, Segesta and Filiporto.

Malta’s use of this term, more restricted in time to the prehistoric Copper Age, is therefore of purely local, that is, Maltese, relevance.