Making sense of the Maltese temple period : an archaeology of sensory experience and perception.

Abstract

This paper attempts to formulate a culturally specific sensory inventory of the Maltese islandscape during the distinctive Temple Period (c. 3400-2500BC), with particular reference to the sensory stimuli and constraints of three dynamic types of place on the islands (houses, caves, and temples), in order to explore the islanders' full-bodied experiences and perceptions of their lived-in world, and to add to our understanding of their sensational Temple Culture, which is characterized here in terms of embodied social production, ritualization, and ordering.