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The Zebbug Phase brings to an end this long period of
settlement and introduces a new period which saw extensive
megalithic construction throughout the Maltese islands.
The most significant cultural development of this period
was the introduction of formal burials in rock-cut chamber
tombs.
This phenomenon marks a further elaboration of the cultural
customs and cult activities that had been established
during the previous centuries when a difference between
purely domestic buildings and ritual space was maintained
by means of specifically constructed buildings, such as
the huts and shrines in Skorba. The need to establish
more permanent burial customs required an indestructible
monument. Such a monument could be built above ground
or, as happened in the case of the Zebbug Phase, carved
out of the living rock below ground.
In Malta, the introduction of rock-cut chamber tombs may
have given rise to more formal burial customs which were
different from other forms of rituals and daily activities.
The Emergence of Rock-cut Chamber tombs
in Malta
The closing centuries of the fifth millennium BC saw the
introduction of collective burials in rock-cut chamber
tombs in Malta and Gozo. This phenomenon marks a further
elaboration of the cultural customs and cult activities
that had been established during the previous centuries
when a distinction between purely domestic buildings and
ritual space was maintained by means of specifically constructed
buildings, such as the huts and shrines encountered at
Skorba. Contemporary signs of belief in an afterlife still
need to be identified due to a general lack of known funerary
remains dating to this period. It seems that up to the
beginning of the Zebbug Phase (c. 4100 BC), burial arrangements
may have been much less durable, thus making discovery
difficult after several thousands of years.
The need to establish more permanent burial customs required
an indestructible monument. Such a monument could be built
above ground or, as happened in the case of the Zebbug
Phase, carved out of the living rock below ground. The
choice may have been influenced by customs that prevailed
and circulated throughout the Central Mediterranean.
In Malta, the introduction of rock-cut chamber tombs may
have given rise to more formal burial customs which were
distinguishable from other forms of rituals and daily
activities. From the Zebbug Phase onwards, a clear demarcation
was made between the everyday domestic and ritual spaces
of the living and the world of the dead. Although the
two complemented each other symbolically through the use
of common aesthetic values and artistic images, surface
monuments and underground cemeteries were to follow distinct
evolutionary trajectories.
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