1. MNAJDRA: Cosmology of the Sky
An afrocentric study submitted to HIST632 - Gender, Race, Racism, and the History of Classical Scholarship
Dr. Lisa Micheelsen

2. Mnajdra Temple in Malta
23 megalithic temples in Malta
In form of mother’s body
Astronomical orientations
Purpose
What is the cosmology expressed by Mnajdra?
What is the origin of this cosmology?

3. Mnajdra – built by a sky-watching culture
Predates Stonehenge & Great Pyramid by 1000 years
Predate Stonehenge and Great Pyramid by 1000 years
Mnajdra South 3200 BCE
Mnajdra North
3100 BCE
Small Trefoil
3500 BCE

4. Mnajdra: Astronomical Features
30 Years of Study
Mnajdra South
Equinox & solstice sunrise alignments
Small Trefoil
tally marks indicate stellar observations
Was it intentional?
I do not wish to repeat what has been presented by previous speakers who are experts in archaeo-astronomy.
Let me simply note that the research to confirm Mna-I-dra’s astronomical alignments took more than 30 years.
But now.
Gimbutas, 1999

5. Mnajdra: Astronomical Features
2010 – Cox & Lomesdalen discover alignments at many temple sites.
2014 – Lomesdalen confirms orientations and 1 alignment at Mnajdra alone.
Indicates intention
John Cox & Tore Lomsdalen’s identification of alignments at other temples has radically changed the discussion about intention.
Mna-I-dra is no longer the “only” temple with alignments. The scope of the puzzle has become megalithic Malta and it will take mega resources to solve this puzzle.
Extra material for Slide 6:
Currently in the National Museum at Valletta.
This small prehistoric figurine, standing at 5.2cm tall, is one of the few figurines discovered so far which is complete with head. Excavated from Mnajdra Temples it dates back to the Temple Period ( BC). Although very roughly made from buff clay and poorly fired, it undoubtedly represents a female figure. The face was made by simply pinching the clay between thumb and finger. The arms and legs are rudimentary, disproportionately small and almost stump like in their rendition. The abdomen is immensely distended and surmounted by large pendant breasts; the female sex is marked by a deep incision. The backbone is represented by a thin strip clay and the ribs marked by deep incisions at the back. Some scholars attribute the distended abdomen to that of pregnancy, while other scholars believe that the distended abdomen and protruding back bone may be an indication of some sort of disease related to malnutrition.
Tally Marks, trefoil temple
Photo Credit: M & K Davison

6. Mnajdra: Matricultural Features
Artefacts
Mnajdra Woman
Five clay twists
… teachings tools of a midwife…(Rich, 2008)
I use the word MATRICULTURE instead of matricentric because it implies the integration of mother-centred values in a culture’s myths, rituals and symbols.
What are the artefacts found at Mnajdra that indicate matriculture?
The terracotta statue called Mna-I-dra Woman was found under the torba floor in Mna-I-dra South by Ashby in The statue emphasizes pregnancy.
Several clay twists were found with her.
These two artefacts have been interpreted by Isabelle Vella Gregory and Sara Rich as the teachings tools of a midwife with the suggestion that Mnajdra could have functioned as a women’s teaching place.
The bobbins found by Ashby (1910) in the small room of Mnajdra North are similar to bobbins found at other temple sites, indicating that weaving was a common activity. Weaving is generally considered a women’s art.
The 3 benches in Mnajdra South indicate that this temple was a place to sit and stay a while, and perhaps to labour.
The Temple design in the form of motherly body, as well as these artefacts, indicate a matriculture.
Photo: M & K Davison Courtesy Heritage Malta
Photo © Dr. Bernadette Flynn Courtesy Heritage Malta
Temple Design
Floor plan in female form
3 Benches
Egg-shaped apses

7. North Africa Tamazight Imazighen Amazigh Berber Tanit Neith Nut
We look to Malta’s southern neighbour: North Africa, to explore astronomy and matriculture in its ancient cultures.
The blue area is Tamazight culture. Modern scholars refer to the region as Berber, but this colonialist term is regarded as pejorative by the inhabitants of North Africa. In Canada, it is comparable to referring to First Nations people as “Indians”.
The contemporary culture calls itself Imazighen or Amazigh, but these terms abandon the ancient matricultural value that is embedded in the language, where an initial and final T indicate plural feminine.
Tanit is the primordial deity for the Tamazight culture. She is also known as Libyan Nit (Neith). Later, in Egyptian civilization, she was known as Nut ______________________________________...
Nesmenser asserts that the Temehu designates the whole of the Libyan peoples west of the Nile - that is all the Berbers or Imazighen including the Tehenu (north Libya), the Ribu, the Nasamons, the Garamantes, etc, all of whom the Egyptians were aware of as one Berber group, collectively mentioned as Temehu. Temehu's territory includes much of the Sudan and possibly all the way to Fezzan. Scholars, starting from Oric Bates, have discussed the possibility of the Temehu being the distant ancestors of the present day Tuareg tribes of the great Sahara Desert, "The Speakers of Tamaheqt", or *Temehaght > Temejeght > Temezeght > Tamazight, the language of the entire Berber population of North Africa, currently spanning 10 countries, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Chad.
Nut

8. N. Africa Cosmology: Tanit / Neith
Ruler of the Skies
Opener of the Sun’s Paths in all her Stations
Mistress of the Bow
Ruler of the Arrows
Primordial Mother
Parthenogenic
Mother of the Gods
Ever-Ready Shooter
Opener of the Ways
Protector of Women in Childbirth
(Rigoglioso, Stuckey, Dexter, Iles, Griffis-Greenberg)
Credit: G.Poellauer
Tanit (ta-NIT) & Neith (Neeeth) are one and the same.
Tanit as Primordial Mother had many titles. Allow me to introduce her titles that relate to this function. …
Tanit was also known as Ruler of the Skies.. Her titles that illuminate her celestial functions. Her Stations includes solstices and equinoxes. She governs air, and weather, rain, rainbows, storms, wind.
The triangle is most recognizable part of her icon. The crescent over her head is not the moon, it is the sky. The rectangle at her base usually refers to loom. The horizontal line are Tanits arms raised to hold up the sky. Her icon is similar to the Ankh, Egyptian symbol of life.
___________________________________...
I emphasize that Tanit is NOT a Fertility Goddess. This term is obsolete and pejorative.
We speak of indigenousTanit who was known long before the Phoenicians

9. N. Africa Matriculture
“The traditional power of African women had an economic and ideological basis, which derived from the importance accorded to motherhood.”
It is “common to all traditional African social structures, since it generated affective relationships.”
(Amadiume 1997)
Amadiume critiques Diop for defining African matriarchy narrowly as social structure. Her understanding is broader. In Reinventing Africa, she wrote:
The photo features Dr. Malika Grasshoff, a Kabyle scholar, deciphering Tanit symbols embedded in contemporaryTamazight weaving, pottery and jewelry. This photo indicates that Tanit cosmology has survived for millennia.
___________________________________________...
Notes for Slide 10
African Cultural Astronomy: Current Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy research in Africa (Google eBook)
Jarita C. Holbrook, Rodney Medupe, Johnson O. Urama. Springer 2008 –
This is the first scholarly collection of articles focused on the cultural astronomy of Africans. It weaves together astronomy, anthropology, and Africa and it includes African myths and legends about the sky, alignments to celestial bodies found at archaeological sites and at places of worship, rock art with celestial imagery, and scientific thinking revealed in local astronomy traditions including ethnomathematics and the creation of calendars. Authors include astronomers Kim Malville, Johnson Urama, and Thebe Medupe; archaeologist Felix Chami, and geographer Michael Bonine, and many new authors.

10. Africa: Astronomical Knowledge “as old as the people themselves”
24 alignments & orientations
Solar
Stellar
(Wendorf & Malville 1998)
4500 BCE
Nabta Playa
Sahara savannah
Neolithic Subpluvial ends
Sahara desert
3300 BCE
Nabta Playa abandoned
We shift our focus to astronomy…
Nabta Playa is a megalithic site in the Nubian dessert that has been dated to 4500 BCE during the Neolithic Subpluvial.
When the Subpluvial ended, the Sahara gradually became desert. By 3300 BCE, desertification compelled the sedentary herders at Nabta Playa to abandon their site.
The site was re-discovered by Fred Wendorf in By 1998, Fred Wendorf with Kim Malville had identified 24 alignments, both solar and stellar.
I share Haarmann’s assumption that when cultural knowledge is useful, it is valued and maintained through myths, rituals, symbols and signs.
Nabta Playa’s advanced astronomical knowledge would have been useful for navigating the desert and for seasonal agriculture. There is reason to conjecture that, in the millenium between the creation of Nabta Playa and the construction of Mnajdra South, the astro knowledge was transmitted through Northern Africa and to Malta via trade routes and large river valleys.
Jarita Holbrook w Medupe and Urama published proceedings for first international conf on African cultural astronomy in Dogon, Igbo and Yoruba cultures have astronomical cultures.
Q&A _______________________________________________________
In 2001, Wendorf and Malville listed 25 megaliths in 6 alignments. Avg 2mx1m. Largest 20T not part of an lignment.
1998 Wendorf invited Malville. Malville confirmed stellar alignments “radiating like spokes form the site of cow sculpture” (Brophy so get direct quote from Malville). Alignments to Orion, Dubhe, Sirius (also known as Sothis) who became important in Egyptian astronomy and assoc with Hathor.
Dogon…
Yoruba…
Igbo
Egypt
Pre Dynastic

11. Malta and North Africa: Cosmology & Astronomy
Mnajdra’s astronomical knowledge may have originated in Africa
After synthesizing the intersection of Cosmology & Astronomy, I suggest that
Skywatching at Mna-I-dra could have been
A collective ritual practice to reciprocate relationship with a female sky deity: Ruler of the Skies – Opener of the Sun’s Paths in all Her Stations.
Participatory and inclusive (not elitist) to ensure cultural continuity.
Was Mnajdra built to honour
Ruler of the Skies
Opener of the Sun’s Paths in all her Stations?

12. Malta and North Africa: Cosmology & Matriculture
Understanding how Neolithic Maltese valued mothers and birthing is key to understanding Mnajdra.
Was Mnajdra a place where mothers & midwives felt the presence of
Primordial Mother
Protector of Women in Childbirth?
After synthesizing the intersection of Cosmology & matriculture,
I suggest that Mna-I-dra South could have been a place where mothers and midwives felt the presence of the Primordial Mother:
Opener of the Ways
Protector of Women in Childbirth.
Was Mnajdra a teaching place for midwives and pregnant women? A birthing centre? More research is required.
I find that the culture that built and used Mna-I-dra valorized natality and creativity, not necrophilia.
Women’s weaving is a way of participating in the creative function of the Weaver of the Cosmos.
Photo of unusual image located on Ancient Wisdom website by Alex Whitaker. Purporttedly found in Gozo Hypogeum.
Photo: D.Cilia
Courtesy Heritage Malta

13. MNAJDRA: Cosmology of the Sky
. . .
Pottery
Architecture
Matriculture
Astronomy
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
First Mother
Architecture
Architecture
Architecture
Architecture
Pottery
Pottery
Pottery
Pottery
Architecture
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
Astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy
Weaving
Weaving
SKY COSMOLOGY
Ruler of the Skies
Weaving
I suggest that the architects of Mna-I-dra were informed by a sky cosmology that centred on a female sky deity:
Ruler of the Skies and
Primordial Mother,
And that this cosmology is embedded in Mnajdra’s architecture, its astronomical function, its matriculture and the creative arts.
No doubt there were also linkages to agriculture.
This cosmology contributed to a culture of creativity….then in the Neolithic, and now in the 21st century.
Thank you for your attention. There is much research to undertake before this afrocentric hypothesis is confirmed, and I look forward to the collegial discussions that moves us toward that goal.
Matriculture
Matriculture
Matriculture
Matriculture
Matriculture
Farming
Farming