The amazing cave people of Malta
Evolutionist indoctrination has led many to link the idea of 'cave dwelling' with
the notion of 'primitive subhumans'. But this does not logically follow, as recent
evidence confirms.
by Joseph Mizzi and Michael
Matthews
‘Do you believe in cavemen?’
Sceptics think ‘gotcha!’ when they ask this question. They might know
the Bible says that Adam’s descendants built great cities, but they claim
the ‘evidence’ clearly shows that early humans lived in caves.
Cave, sweet cave!
 There was ‘no place
like home’ to the cave dwellers of Ghar il-Kbir. Foreigners were struck by
their intense devotion to cave life.
‘These people are so tied to their cave that when they have to go to the city
of Melita either to sell their merchandise or in order to buy their needs,
they feel as if they were condemned to exile and no sooner do they finish their
errands, than they hurry back to their caves lest they spend even one night away.’
– Kircher, 16371
‘… these Maltese Troglodytes … rather chose to bury themselves,
as it were, alive, by inhabiting the dark and solitary Caverns of the Earth, than
to live above ground in Houses … .’ – Veryard, 17012
The discovery of modern cave dwellers should not surprise us. But evolutionary ideas
have brainwashed us to believe that cave dwellers are ‘primitive’. We
need to remember that evidence must be interpreted—it does not speak for itself.
If Christians look at cave dwellers through biblical glasses, they should realize
that Noah’s descendants chose to live in caves, perhaps for convenience
or personal preference, but not because they were brainless brutes!
References
- Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local Council, Malta,
p. 11, 2000.
- Veryard, E., An Account of Divers Choice Remarks, as well Geographical, as Historical,
Political, Mathematical, Physical, and Moral; taken in a Journey through the Low-Countries,
France, Italy, and Part of Spain; with the isles of Sicily and Malta, Sam Farley,
London, pp. 233–236, 1701.
|
‘Of course we believe in cavemen,’ we respond, ‘if by “cavemen”?
you mean people who live in caves.’ Just visit the town of Coober Pedy in
South Australia, where opals are mined—it’s so hot that some miners
live in underground houses. Real live ‘cavemen’ with TV sets!
Well, we answered the question. But the question is not really about cavemen at
all. It’s about those hairy, cave-dwelling ‘apemen’ so often depicted
in books and museums. People assume, based on their evolutionary beliefs,
that humans who once lived in caves were primitive brutes. But this is not a deduction
from the evidence; rather, it is a consequence of evolutionary conditioning. Even
the caves occupied by Neandertals show clear evidence that they were skilful human
beings, even talented musicians.
The Bible describes a number of ‘cavemen’. In Genesis, we find that
Lot was once a ‘caveman’ (after he fled Sodom). When David was running
from King Saul, he lived in a cave. Obadiah hid a hundred prophets in a cave and
fed them bread and water, to save them from Jezebel. To escape the Midianites, the
Israelites lived temporarily in caves. Elijah himself lived in a cave. Even Job
mentions people who lived in caves (Job
30:6).
From the viewpoint of biblical history, as people spread out after the confusion
of languages at Babel, they would have constructed a variety of homes—some
temporary and some permanent—such as tents, or made of mud, stone or wood,
and many people would surely have taken up residence in caves. (The receding waters
of Noah’s Flood probably carved many caves—see Caves
for all seasons.) Thus, you would expect evidence all over the world that
people lived in caves.
One interesting example comes from the island of Malta, south of Sicily in the Mediterranean
Sea.
Mediterranean people have always liked caves and grottos as convenient and cool
dwelling places. Malta is no exception. Here, the tradition of cave dwelling goes
back to antiquity. There is strong archaeological and documentary evidence that
cave dwelling, or troglodytism, was very popular during medieval times, too. When
Jean Quintin d’Autun wrote about the island in 1536,1 he was surprised by the great number of cave dwellers
in Malta; and there were still some people living in caves till very recent times.
The remains of several of these cave settlements are still present, including some
that had cave churches.
The Great Cave
Ghar il-Kbir (the Great Cave) is the best-known of these settlements.2,3,4,5,6
It consists of eight smaller caves, on two different levels, surrounding a large
natural cavern. The roof of the cavern (technically called a ‘karst hollow’)
has collapsed. The cave dwellers inhabit the smaller caves, having built stone walls
inside (as well as at the entrance) to separate their living quarters. There is
no evidence of wall painting (which is found at some other sites), but there are
various works in stone—loops in the ceiling, ducts, shelves and niches, which
evidently served practical purposes.
The date of the earliest settlement at Ghar il-Kbir is unknown, but the first known
mention of it, in 1544, is a reference to Simone Camilleri de gar il-chibir
(Simone Camilleri of the Great Cave). The Maltese historian Giovanni Francesco Abela
includes Ghar il-Kbir in his list of inhabited places on the island. He describes
it as a vast cavern where 117 people lived, grouped in 27 families.7 They were pastori e pecorai—‘shepherds
and sheep-herders’.
The most dramatic description of life at Ghar il-Kbir is given by the German scholar
Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) in his voluminous book Mundus Subterraneus
(Latin for ‘World Beneath the Earth’).8
When he visited the place, tall, strong and simply dressed children and adults greeted
him. He also noted that the women were remarkable for their good looks (which contrasts
markedly with the pictures of brute and coarse women in children’s books!).
The people were vegetarians, eating vegetables, cheese and home-baked bread, and
using dried cow dung to fuel their fires. The men worked in the fields and tended
animals, which were taken to town for sale. The women took care of the children
and made cheese. Drinking water was stored in large earthen pitchers. The cavern
was ventilated by shafts, devised to exclude rain and wind. The cave dwellers decorated
the caves with crosses and holy pictures.
A first-hand ‘tourist’ account
Ghar il-Kbir became a mini–‘tourist attraction’ among the travellers
of that day. Imagine visiting a real-life community in a cave. The published account
of a German visitor, Athanasius Kircher, was most vivid:
‘In 1637, when I was in Malta, … [my host mentioned] that there was
a hill in the vicinity where people who were his subjects live underground. He expressed
the wish that I go and see them and admire the art with which they adorn these caves
and how they organize the place where they live. …
‘[T]hey had truly well-organized rooms. … Here they have a bed dug
out of solid rock. There, in the wall, they have a wall cupboard where they keep
bread and cheeses. In another place they have pens for cows, sheep, and donkeys;
and some hens as well. Pottery jars, large enough to hold water instead of cisterns,
were not lacking. Onions and garlic, tied in bundles like festoons were hung up,
adorning the walls.
‘There were also ovens for baking bread. … The ovens also have chimneys,
otherwise … smoke would spread in the cave and the people would suffocate.
…’1
The population gradually decreased, but some inhabitants still remained there at
the beginning of the nineteenth century. According to popular accounts, the British
colonial government forcibly expelled the last residents in the 1830s and resettled
them in nearby villages.
The church records in the nearby village of Dingli include personal details of the
people who lived at Ghar il-Kbir.2 For example, in 1699, a 53-year-old
man named Franco Vella lived there with his 38-year-old wife, Filumena, and their
three children.
Clearly, these cave dwellers were normal people who interacted with nearby villagers.
While the noble and rich lived in palaces, the ordinary people lived in stone houses
or in caves. These cave dwellings could not compare in architectural beauty with
the nearby Verdala Palace, but during the hot summer months, the caves were surely
more comfortable than anywhere else on the island.
References
- Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local Council, Malta,
pp. 8–10, 2000.
- Buhagiar, K., The Ghar il-Kbir Settlement and the Cave Dwelling Phenomenon in Malta,
B.A. (Archaeology) thesis, University of Malta, 1997, Appendix 1, pp. 31–34.
|
Related articles
References
- Quintin d’Autun, J., Insulae Melitae Descriptio,
Lyons, France, 1536. Return to text.
- Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local
Council, Malta, 2000. Return to text.
- Wettinger, G., The lost villages and hamlets of Malta, in: Luttrell,
A. (Ed.), Medieval Malta, London, p. 188, n. 24, 1975. Return
to text.
- Messina, A., Trogloditisma Medievale a Malta, Melita Historica,
Malta Historical Society 10(2):109–120, 1989. Return
to text.
- Buhagiar, K., The Ghar il-Kbir Settlement and the Cave Dwelling
Phenomenon in Malta, B.A. (Archaeology) thesis, University of Malta, chapter 2,
pp. 19–23, 1997. Return to text.
- Luttrell, A., Malta Troglodytica: Ghar il-Kbir, Heritage
(publisher: Midsea Books, Malta) 24:461–464, 1979.
Return to text.
- Abela, G.F., Della Descrittione di Malta, Isola nel Mare Siciliano,
Bonacota, Malta, pp. 79–80, 1647. Return to text.
- A photocopy of pp. 97–99 in volume II of the original 1665
Latin text of Kircher, A., Mundus Subterraneus, can be found in Hein, O.
and Mader, R., Athanasius Kircher S.J., in Malta, Akademie Verlag Berlin, pp. 139–141,
1997. Return to text.
| We support belief in an intelligent designer—the God of the Bible. This site was also ‘intelligently designed’. But rather than six days, it’s taken thousands of days. Help us design more information for this site.  | | |
|
