“Four stones make a tomb”. Funerary models between Malta and Sicily during the Early Bronze Age

The first half of the 2nd millennium BC is characterized by notable changes and cultural innovations in the entire Mediterranean basin. The increase of maritime interaction during the Early Bronze Age stimulated contacts among insular communities and boosted the circulation of cultural elements on an interregional scale. In the framework of the Mediterranean phenomenon of Megalithism, the similar evidence emerging from Malta and Sicily has always been considered the result of a one-way transmission of architectural models. The megalithic features of Sicilian funerary architecture have been traditionally interpreted as being derived from the Maltese architecture of the Temple Period. This contribution focuses on the dolmens, the only funerary typology for the Early Bronze Age which seems to occur simultaneously in the two islands. During the Castelluccio phase (2200-1600 BC) the predominant mortuary practice in Sicily was inhumation in rock-cut tombs and, in some exceptional cases, in small, sometimes isolated, cist-type and dolmen structures. At the same time, during the Tarxien Cemetery phase (2200-1500 BC), the principal and widespread funerary practice in Malta was incineration with human ashes kept in funerary urns, as documented by the stratigraphic sequence at Tarxien, above the Temple period structures. Beside this evidence, the funerary landscape of Malta and Gozo at beginning of the Bronze Age is characterized by the appearance of a new type of structure, the dolmen. Pottery fragments found by John D. Evans underneath some of these monuments allowed to hypothesize a funerary function, probably related to the cremation ritual. The recent analysis of these structures, together with the review of the Sicilian dolmens, led to the identification of the model in the Maltese monuments, showing the sharing of specific architectural elements. On the contrary, the choice of the ritual in Sicily appears more deeply-rooted on the local long lasting tradition, the inhumation. More specifically, the Maltese evidence of Ta ‘Ħammut and Wied Moqbol - with Tarxien Cemetery materials found within the structures - confirms the sole example of synchronous mutation of a funeral typology for the Sicilian cases. The ongoing review and new study of the pottery assemblages coming from these two Maltese dolmens will shed light on the funerary and ritual practices related to the tombs, suggesting the need for a review of the unpublished material (human bones and castelluccian pottery) succinctly reported in the vicinity or within of some Sicilian monuments. Furthermore, the development of this research, integrated by a systematic territorial study, will provide a more detailed comparison between Sicily and Malta, in view of the similar chronological extension of the Castelluccio and Tarxien Cemetery phases.