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Immensity and Miniaturism: The Interplay of Scale and Sensory Experience in the Late Neolithic of the Maltese Islands
Author(s) -
Gregory Isabelle Vella
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/ojoa.12092
Subject(s) - maltese , megalith , archipelago , materiality (auditing) , archaeology , history , dominance (genetics) , geography , period (music) , prehistory , ancient history , art , aesthetics , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Summary At first glance, the Late Neolithic (3600–2500 BC) of the Maltese Island archipelago in the central Mediterranean is a landscape of immensity dominated by megalithic stone structures. To the modern viewer, the Neolithic is materialized as magnitude across time and space. Archaeologically, it is denoted as the Temple Period, after the numerous megalithic structures found across the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino. Although these structures elicit notions of dominance, they also obscure multiple scales of materiality within and between their assemblages, particularly the not insignificant corpus of figurines and models. This paper looks at the two extreme ends of scale, immensity and miniaturism, and their role in shaping sensory experience and social relations.