. Fig. 4.—bronze-age objects focxd in cinerary urns, hai. tarxien. The foregoing are the main features of the Tarxien temples which have added valuable information to what we already knew about the conditions of life during the Neolithic Age in Malta. The objects discovered in the ruins are hardly less important than the buildings themselves. As one would have expected, stone objects were the more numerous, and included such implements as hammers, mortars, grinders, troughs, and such objects as stone balls, cones of various descrip- tions, the use of which is not certain, polished stone axes,
. Fig. 4.—bronze-age objects focxd in cinerary urns, hai. tarxien. The foregoing are the main features of the Tarxien temples which have added valuable information to what we already knew about the conditions of life during the Neolithic Age in Malta. The objects discovered in the ruins are hardly less important than the buildings themselves. As one would have expected, stone objects were the more numerous, and included such implements as hammers, mortars, grinders, troughs, and such objects as stone balls, cones of various descrip- tions, the use of which is not certain, polished stone axes, used probably as amulets, flint and obsidian knives, beads made from marine shells, bone awls, needles, burnishers, etc., all of which were encoun- tered in considerable quantity. Stone statuettes representing human figures are, perhaps, the most rich brown or a deep black. The plain polished ware is the more common, but decorated pottery was abun- dant. Fine lines and deep incisions, often filled up with a white or a red paste, decorated the polished surfaces with geometrical patterns ; a peculiar black ware is studded with circular bosses, forming sometimes elaborate scroll patterns, which stand out sharply on a white background. Painted ware has also been found, broad bands of a bright red colour being, in these cases, laid thickly along curved lines. All these objects point to the long experience of an old race which had lived for a considerable period under peaceful and favourable conditions. From informa- tion gained from all the Neolithic stations so far excavated, it appears that the Maltese settlers of the
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