TWO RELIEF-CARVINGS OF NEOLITHIC MALTA (original) (raw)
1986, Archaeology & Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean, ed. A.Bonanno
The South Temple of the Tarxien Complex is the most elaborately decorated of the Neolithic temples in Malta. The repertoire of stone-carved motifs is fairly extensive, among which - carved beneath a monumental limestone statue - seems to represent the prototype of the egg-and-dart motif before it was abstracted to become, presumably through the agency of the Aegean civilisations, one of the most popular architectural decorative motifs of western art. A second carving - in an adjacent room to the South Temple - represents a bull and female animal with its young, usually thought to represent a 'sow with litter'. The writer suggests an interpretation connected with the calendar.
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