Beyond artefacts : music in prehistoric Malta

Abstract

The research presented in this dissertation examines the evidence for music activity in prehistoric Malta. The research relies principally on theory and methodology of ethnomusicology. This is complemented with an interdisciplinary approach which lies at the core of the entire research. This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 reviews and analyses the relevance of sound as auditory experience. Our ancestors granted meaning to sounds, and consequently tried to replicate them through singing, piping, fluting, or drumming. This portrays the beginnings of organised sound. Thus, music is an amalgamation of arbitrary sounds organised by humans which, evidently, give other dimensions to these sounds. Early Maltese inhabitants experienced innumerable processes related to organisation and it was during these processes that sounds produced by individuals became organised. Chapter 2 explores the possibility that stone tools were used as sound producing devices in prehistoric Malta. The characteristic sound of stone tools as working devices, that is, as sensuous objects, was undoubtedly present in the Maltese prehistoric soundscape. The sonorous properties of stones could not have passed unnoticed to the Maltese prehistoric man. This fact might have triggered their potential use in communication and ritual contexts. Chapter 3 attempts to demonstrate that large conch shells were used as sound producing devices in prehistoric Malta. This chapter includes a reconstruction of this instrument based on comparative evidence found in non-Maltese societies, as well as an analysis of its sonorous properties. Chapter 4 portrays the relevance of shamanic practices in Maltese prehistory with an emphasis on the production of sound. In order to portray this, the chapter explores practices found in non-Maltese societies. Chapter 5 attempts to evidence acoustic intentionality in the construction of Maltese Neolithic Temples and hypogea with references to studies carried out at Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum.