The Neolithic World

At any time visitors can transition from the site in the 21st century to the site in the 4th and 3rd Millennium BC. By picking up the sensor ‘wand’ located on a pedestal in the middle of the installation space a slow transition starting at the edges of the panorama takes visitors from the present day to prehistoric times when the temples were part of daily life and ritual.

Visitors find themselves in an enclosed labyrinth of arched doorways and portholes with altars and shadowy niches lit only by the ambient light through the doorway and flares. Corbelled walls form arches and double lintel doorways reveal a staggered entranceway where the eye is drawn to internal altars and interconnecting chambers.

As the torch beam is moved across the walls areas of archaeological significance are highlighted and enlarged – sea shell fossils in the limestone wall; low relief pitting around doorways and tiny openings between chambers. Visitors may also find the local Gecko (wiżgħa tal-kampanja) running across the stonework, red-banded snails (għakrux mara) and notice the islet of Filfla in the distance. Artefacts (now in the museum) are revealed and enlarged in the torch like beam where they were first encountered during archaeological excavation. As hand-held possibly votive items they could easily have been passed through the tiny openings between chambers. As visitors rotate the wand, the curious artefacts – limbs, animalistic forms and figurines with exaggerated features can be examined from all sides in high-resolution detail along with bowls and pot fragments.