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A fat lady asleep (or dead)

Yet more museums

Another day of museums. The first was the Archaeological Museum which has some great exhibits from the neolithic and bronze ages. Malta was home to a group of neolithic peoples from about 5,200 BC who built some of the oldest stone structures in the world. They are called the Temple Civilisation as they seemed very civilised, there is no evidence of defensive structures nor of any fighting, they just built temples, we are booked to visit the most famous site at the end of the holiday. Something happened around 2,500 BC and they disappeared, was it war, disease, famine? No one knows. They did seem to like fat ladies judging by the statues they left. One archaeologist was asked “What demonstrates a “Civilisation” to which they relied “A healed femur” (a repaired broken leg). If someone breaks their leg it needs to be held in a splint and the patient remaining safe for about 6 weeks whilst it heals. They need protection, feeding and nursing and do not contribute anything to society during this period and probably beyond as they regain strength. This demonstrates a well organised and caring civilisation. There were examples of Temple people with repaired broken legs so definitely a civilised society.

They also made some big pots with clever holes in the sides for rope handles, easily replaced and unlikely to get knocked off.

They think this clay model was used by the designer of the temples to explain to the builders what he wanted, the neolithic version of an architects model

An illustration painted for a stamp

Our next museum was a gem, it is the Malta Postal museum which of course had a good collection of stamps but also had some interesting letters (a couple from Nelson asking for help from the Prime Minister of Naples and another from a French Knight describing the arrival of Napoleon who was on his way to Egypt). The guidebook listed it as a “must see” attraction and they were right. Even better the girl on reception asked to see my ID as she did not think I was over 65 and therefore qualified for a discount, her colleague who was older took one look at us and said "They are oldies" or words to that effect.

Our last museum of the day was the National War museum which has had a lot of money spent on it by the EU and it’s main theme was about the rotten Italians and Germans and how brave the Maltese and English were in fighting them off. Perhaps the Germans and Italians should ask for their EU money back. Malta withdrew from Nato in 1971 which was a surprise (those of you as old as me might remember the architect of this, Dom Mintoff, the Maltese equivalent of Nicola Sturgeon, who blamed everything on the British government in the 70’s).

During the 1800’s Malta was regarded as a good posting for British Servicemen and as a result many women travelled to Malta in search of suitable servicemen husbands, they were unkindly known as “The fishing fleet”.

Tomorrow we will cross the Grand Harbour in a small boat and explore yet more fortifications, hopefully in the sunshine (it has been perfect weather so far).