Long ago in the megalithic temple of Hal Saflieni, in Malta, were buried men with extraordinary cranial volume. Their skulls seem to observers today belong to a truly alien stock. A similarity with skulls from Egypt and South America found with this particular deformity—ancient (from approximately 3000 B.C.), yet unique in medical pathology—suggests this could be an extraordinary discovery. Was this skull the result of an ancient genetic mutation between different races or something else? Before 1985 a number of these skulls, found in prehistoric Maltese temples at Taxien, Ggantja and Hal Saflieni, were displayed in the Archaeological Museum of the Valletta. A few years ago, though, they were removed and placed in storage. The public has not seen them since. Only the photographs taken by Maltese researcher Dr. Anton Mifsud and his colleague Dr. Charles Savona Ventura remain to testify of their existence and as proof of their extraordinary characteristics.
All skulls were found in the Hal Saflieni hypogeum, where a sacred well was dedicated to the Mother Goddess and where the small statue of a sleeping goddess associated with a snake inscribed relic was also found. The skulls were brought out one at a time The cranium showed a very pronounced dolichocephalous, in other words, a lengthened posterior part of the skullcap, besides the lack of median knitting, technically named “sagitta.” This last detail has been called “impossible” by the medics and anatomists. It does not have (as far as known) any analogous cases in international pathological medical literature. The anomalous nature of the finding is underscored by a natural lengthening of the cranium in the occipital area (not due to bandaging or boards like those used in pre- Columbian civilizations).
Malta and Gozo have been very important centers since prehistoric times, places where “medical cures” were sought from oracles and in ritual encounters with the priests of the goddess. There existed, on both islands, many sanctuaries and thaumaturgic centers, where priests surrounded the healing goddess, in direct support of her divinity. It is well known that, in antiquity, the serpent was associated with the goddess and her healing capacities. The snake also belongs to the subterranean world. Therefore, a hypogeum dedicated to the goddess and the water cult was the right place for a sacerdotal group defined, in all the most ancient cultures, as the “serpent priests” (an epithet still in use for shamans). The long head and drawn features must have given an almost serpent-like appearance, stretching the eyes and skin. Lacking the lower part, but the hypothesis seems plausible. Such deformities would certainly have created walking problems, forcing him almost to slither! The lack of the cranium’s median knitting and therefore, the impossibility of the brain’s consistent, radial expansion in the skullcap must have caused terrible agony from infancy, but could have enhanced the visions considered proof of a bond with the goddess.
It’s worth emphasizing that one of these skulls showed unmistakable signs of surgical intervention. The outlines of three small holes, made in the occipital bone called inion, had time to cicatrize, therefore the patient survived the operation although such intervention surely would have undermined his motor faculties. But there is more. A fair part of the 7000 skeletons dug out of the Hal Saflieni hypogeum and examined by Themistocles Zammit in 1921 presented artificially performed deformations. A skeleton of the group that was unearthed by the archaeologist, Brochtorff Circle, shows clear signs of intentional deformation through bondage. These deformations could have occurred for various reasons: initiation, matrimony, solar ritual, punishment for social transgressions, etc. All the tribal apparatus of incisions, perforations, partial or total removals, cauterizations, abrasions, insertions of extraneous bodies in muscles, like the modification of bodies for magical, medical or cosmetic purposes, were part of cruel practices, but possibly “with best intentions” for the community.
In Malta, all this was practiced by a mysterious populace that erected gigantic temples to the Mother Goddess between 4100 and 2500 B.C. The presence of these skulls might be that of the last exponents of the most ancient sacerdotal caste that built the megalithic temples. The skulls that have been found are dated 2500 B.C. (but may be even older. No C- 14 test was done)—a date in which Malta’s megalithic history ends, initiating a period of historical darkness and absence of population that was to last about 300 years, until the arrival of the Phoenicians who began to make Malta their Mediterranean outpost.
The Phoenicians also erected temples to the Mother Goddess in Malta, calling her Astarte, the snakefaced Goddess. But it’s the date of 2500 B.C. that presents a fundamental key to understanding who these longheaded individuals were. Professor Walter B. Emery (1903-1971), the famous Egyptologist, author of “Archaic Egypt,” who excavated at Saqquara in the ’30s, indeed discovered the remains of individuals who lived in predynastic epoch. These presented a dolichocephalous skull, larger than that of the local ethnic group, fair hair and a taller, heavier build. Emery declared that this stock wasn’t indigenous to Egypt but had performed an important sacerdotal and governmental role in this country. This race kept its distance from the common people, blending only with the aristocratic classes, and the scholar associated them with the Shemsu Hor, the “disciples of Horus.” The Shemsu Hor are recognized as the dominant sacerdotal caste in predynastic Egypt (until approximately 3000 B.C.), being mentioned in the Turin papyrus and the list of the kings of Abydos.
It’s interesting to note that Emery writes: “Towards the end of the IV millennium B.C. the people known as the Disciples of Horus appear as a highly dominant aristocracy that governed all of Egypt. The theory of the existence of this race is supported by the discovery in the predynastic tombs, in the northern part of Upper Egypt, of the anatomical remains of individuals with bigger skulls and builds than the native population, with so much difference as to exclude any hypothetical common racial strain. The fusion of the two races must have come about in ages that concurred, more or less, with the unification of the two Egyptian Kingdoms.” Therefore, what occurred in Malta is also reflected in Egypt.
It can be concluded that these serpent-priests were the most ancient race that first occupied the fertile half-moon area (particularly Anatolia and Kurdistan) and Egypt (following migrations dating back 6000-4000 B.C.) until reaching Malta to disappear around 2500 B.C. but this culture survived in the Middle East and probably included one of the most famous and yet mysterious pharaohs of Egypt—Akhenaton. Portrayed in statues and bas-reliefs with his family was an individual of lengthened head and human face—like that found in the pre-dynastic Egyptian stock mentioned by Emery—but closely resembling the long-skulled individuals of Malta. X-rays of Tuthankamun’s skull, Akhenaton’s son, indeed, showed a dolichocephalous cranium. Substantially, the Maltese craniums appear to be relics—though, archaeologically still not understood—of a sacerdotal race that, in Egypt and Malta, from archaic ages, survived till 2500 B.C.
Sources :
Atlantis Rising Magazine vol. 43 : “The Mystery of Malta’s Long-Headed Skull” by Adriano Forgione
Pic Source : Atlantis Rising Magazine vol. 43 page 23
All skulls were found in the Hal Saflieni hypogeum, where a sacred well was dedicated to the Mother Goddess and where the small statue of a sleeping goddess associated with a snake inscribed relic was also found. The skulls were brought out one at a time The cranium showed a very pronounced dolichocephalous, in other words, a lengthened posterior part of the skullcap, besides the lack of median knitting, technically named “sagitta.” This last detail has been called “impossible” by the medics and anatomists. It does not have (as far as known) any analogous cases in international pathological medical literature. The anomalous nature of the finding is underscored by a natural lengthening of the cranium in the occipital area (not due to bandaging or boards like those used in pre- Columbian civilizations).
Malta and Gozo have been very important centers since prehistoric times, places where “medical cures” were sought from oracles and in ritual encounters with the priests of the goddess. There existed, on both islands, many sanctuaries and thaumaturgic centers, where priests surrounded the healing goddess, in direct support of her divinity. It is well known that, in antiquity, the serpent was associated with the goddess and her healing capacities. The snake also belongs to the subterranean world. Therefore, a hypogeum dedicated to the goddess and the water cult was the right place for a sacerdotal group defined, in all the most ancient cultures, as the “serpent priests” (an epithet still in use for shamans). The long head and drawn features must have given an almost serpent-like appearance, stretching the eyes and skin. Lacking the lower part, but the hypothesis seems plausible. Such deformities would certainly have created walking problems, forcing him almost to slither! The lack of the cranium’s median knitting and therefore, the impossibility of the brain’s consistent, radial expansion in the skullcap must have caused terrible agony from infancy, but could have enhanced the visions considered proof of a bond with the goddess.It’s worth emphasizing that one of these skulls showed unmistakable signs of surgical intervention. The outlines of three small holes, made in the occipital bone called inion, had time to cicatrize, therefore the patient survived the operation although such intervention surely would have undermined his motor faculties. But there is more. A fair part of the 7000 skeletons dug out of the Hal Saflieni hypogeum and examined by Themistocles Zammit in 1921 presented artificially performed deformations. A skeleton of the group that was unearthed by the archaeologist, Brochtorff Circle, shows clear signs of intentional deformation through bondage. These deformations could have occurred for various reasons: initiation, matrimony, solar ritual, punishment for social transgressions, etc. All the tribal apparatus of incisions, perforations, partial or total removals, cauterizations, abrasions, insertions of extraneous bodies in muscles, like the modification of bodies for magical, medical or cosmetic purposes, were part of cruel practices, but possibly “with best intentions” for the community.
In Malta, all this was practiced by a mysterious populace that erected gigantic temples to the Mother Goddess between 4100 and 2500 B.C. The presence of these skulls might be that of the last exponents of the most ancient sacerdotal caste that built the megalithic temples. The skulls that have been found are dated 2500 B.C. (but may be even older. No C- 14 test was done)—a date in which Malta’s megalithic history ends, initiating a period of historical darkness and absence of population that was to last about 300 years, until the arrival of the Phoenicians who began to make Malta their Mediterranean outpost.
The Phoenicians also erected temples to the Mother Goddess in Malta, calling her Astarte, the snakefaced Goddess. But it’s the date of 2500 B.C. that presents a fundamental key to understanding who these longheaded individuals were. Professor Walter B. Emery (1903-1971), the famous Egyptologist, author of “Archaic Egypt,” who excavated at Saqquara in the ’30s, indeed discovered the remains of individuals who lived in predynastic epoch. These presented a dolichocephalous skull, larger than that of the local ethnic group, fair hair and a taller, heavier build. Emery declared that this stock wasn’t indigenous to Egypt but had performed an important sacerdotal and governmental role in this country. This race kept its distance from the common people, blending only with the aristocratic classes, and the scholar associated them with the Shemsu Hor, the “disciples of Horus.” The Shemsu Hor are recognized as the dominant sacerdotal caste in predynastic Egypt (until approximately 3000 B.C.), being mentioned in the Turin papyrus and the list of the kings of Abydos.
It’s interesting to note that Emery writes: “Towards the end of the IV millennium B.C. the people known as the Disciples of Horus appear as a highly dominant aristocracy that governed all of Egypt. The theory of the existence of this race is supported by the discovery in the predynastic tombs, in the northern part of Upper Egypt, of the anatomical remains of individuals with bigger skulls and builds than the native population, with so much difference as to exclude any hypothetical common racial strain. The fusion of the two races must have come about in ages that concurred, more or less, with the unification of the two Egyptian Kingdoms.” Therefore, what occurred in Malta is also reflected in Egypt.
It can be concluded that these serpent-priests were the most ancient race that first occupied the fertile half-moon area (particularly Anatolia and Kurdistan) and Egypt (following migrations dating back 6000-4000 B.C.) until reaching Malta to disappear around 2500 B.C. but this culture survived in the Middle East and probably included one of the most famous and yet mysterious pharaohs of Egypt—Akhenaton. Portrayed in statues and bas-reliefs with his family was an individual of lengthened head and human face—like that found in the pre-dynastic Egyptian stock mentioned by Emery—but closely resembling the long-skulled individuals of Malta. X-rays of Tuthankamun’s skull, Akhenaton’s son, indeed, showed a dolichocephalous cranium. Substantially, the Maltese craniums appear to be relics—though, archaeologically still not understood—of a sacerdotal race that, in Egypt and Malta, from archaic ages, survived till 2500 B.C.
Sources :
Atlantis Rising Magazine vol. 43 : “The Mystery of Malta’s Long-Headed Skull” by Adriano Forgione
Pic Source : Atlantis Rising Magazine vol. 43 page 23
It's always interesting to read posts such as this. I've never known that the medical purposes was more of a cruel practice back then.. But of course, rituals and goddesses are not uncommon in that era. Just comes to show how far we've evolved from such mindset (or not!)
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