Was Malta a Place for the Veneration of a Mother Goddess?

The question of whether Malta was a place for the veneration of a Mother Goddess during Neolithic times brought with it many controversial issues. First, I am going to discuss what came out of the now historical Malta Conference on Archaeology and Fertility Cult, which was held in at the University of Malta in 1985. Then I will make a descriptive analysis of the various statues and statuettes found during excavations from different Neolithic temples and give some explanations of the interpretations made by some archaeologists and those who do not agree with the theory that worship of a ‘Mother Goddess’ existed. I will also go through the interpretations of some scholars who maintain that a ‘Mother Goddess’ existed in Malta more than 5,000 years ago and that the early Maltese practiced some sort of a religion. This is because of the quantity of similar figurines found in different temples on the islands. 

About

Prof. Louis Laganà is an Associate Professor at the University of Malta. He obtained his Ph.D. in Art History from Loughborough University, UK in 2005. Currently he lectures on the Arts for Health and Wellbeing at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. He lectured extensively on History of Image Making at the Digital Arts Department, Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, and Psychoanalysis and Art at the Psychology Department, University of Malta. Prof. Laganà is also an art historian, art critic, curator and practicing artist. He specializes in Modern and Contemporary Art History and his research interests include 20th Century Art, Visual Culture, Psychoanalysis and the Arts, The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, Jungian Aesthetics, Prehistoric Malta, Ancient Art, Primitivism and Cultural Tourism. Prof. Laganà delivered papers in many conferences in different countries and contributed articles in learned journals and newspapers. 

Email: louis.lagana@um.edu.mt 

Websites: http://malta.academia.edu/LouisLagana 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-lagana-7a6a7521/ 

The video recording of the event is now available on our YouTube channel Spirituality and the Arts Special Interest Group 

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The SIG Chairs: the Rev. Prof. June Boyce-Tillman, Dr Lila Moore, Annalisa Burello.