Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni – Malta’s Secret History

Now, these skulls are elongated in appearance. When I say elongated, google “Dolichocephalous Skulls” to see what I mean. I got goose bumps when the results popped up. I have further read that they may be akin to the early people of Egypt, Phoenicians even (polished-Stone Age), where it is thought they spread westward along the north coast of Africa, Sicily, Spain, Sardinia and of course, Malta.

So these people were thought to have been Serpent Priests – along with a goddess, could bring healing. Apparently, the ‘snake’ belongs to the subterranean world. Therefore, a hypogeum dedicated to the goddess and the water cult was the right place for a sacerdotal group that was defined, in all the most ancient cultures, as the ‘Serpent Priests’. Apparently, this race of humans worshipped the god Moloch where they offered up human sacrifices to appease him. The ancient Maltese themselves practiced human blood sacrifice to the gods of the underworld which were believed to exist beneath the island and elsewhere, so-called deities which were often identified, as mentioned before, with ‘serpents’.

This ‘worshipping of the gods’ I had some knowledge of, but never quite believed in it, simply because Malta is so religious and Catholic orientated, I could never mix the two together and find the point where it may be true. Reading into this, I found where that point was – St Paul’s shipwreck on the island in 60AD. According to the bible in the book of the Acts chapter 28, St Paul was ‘bitten by a snake’ and all expected for him to fall dead, but didn't, however Malta had no snakes at this time, or at least don't have snakes that are poisonous. This account of St Paul’s arrival in Malta is more like a parable or metaphor where St Paul questioned the current local belief system that day he fatefully arrived on the island and had some sort of conflict with the Serpent Priests, because before St Paul shipwrecked at Malta, the ancient Maltese knew nothing about God or the risen Jesus.

Back to what I mentioned earlier about the skulls “disappearing” – I am not too sure as to how skulls could just disappear and vanish unless someone is trying to hide them. I am not saying my above opinions are the truth, these are simply thoughts I have put together from different writings on the findings of the Hypogeum that I have come across – which to be honest, there seems to be so little on. I would like to think, if this Hypogeum is the oldest prehistoric underground complexes in the world, that the importance of what it was used for, who occupied it and why there were 7000 bodies found (were they purposely buried there, or did something else happen?) should be further researched upon. I think the fact that there is nothing more other than ‘assumptions’ on who these people were and assumptions as to whether these people were actually in relation to the Egyptians is quite sad really. To think that a civilisation of 7000 people lived and there is nothing to explain from it, 7000 is a big number and to forget that these people even existed is a bit sad. I would hate to think that 5000 years from now, where the population of the world to date is over 7 billion and at a much larger scale compared to what it was 5000 years ago, that our future of generations to come, just brush their hands of us and forget about us?!

Malta is a highly Catholic place and we all know how the Catholic church is when it comes to letting the people know the truth. That and, there's quite a bit of our past that is misconstrued or just hidden from the general public in order to keep culture and society running as it has been for the last 2000 years. So I do question, could the disappearance of these skulls (not just these skulls, but the rest of these 7000 skeletons) have something to do with how the ancient Maltese practiced their religion then and believed in more than one god compared to the modern Maltese who today, believe in only one God?

Nevertheless, researchers could still find some kind of answers looking into similar skulls found in Egypt, Sicily or Africa for example. The point I am trying to make is, why isn’t more time being invested into researching who these people were, what their purpose was and what really happened? Are they in fact from Egypt – and if they are, are they indigenous to Egypt? If not, then where have they come from again? And then there lies the question of what the Hypogeum was really used for, was it a burial chamber, that like the catacombs in Italy? Or was it a temple and used for sacrificials by the Serpent Priests?

So many questions!

I was watching a documentary a couple of months ago of a man searching for ancient remains and had his little boy with him who accidently stumbled across a human femur, and from that site finding that the femur belonged to a mother, further finding her child, possibly a third person and other extinct animals from 2 million years ago – google “Australopithecus sediba” it’s quite an interesting story. Watching this and learning of what they discovered was amazing, from the skull they were able to determine that they were from a different race of our kind, one that had not been discovered before. I think Malta’s history (not just the Hypogeum but all 11 of the megalithic temples in Malta, as well as other historical sites) are just as important as the findings and stories of say Tutankhamen, the people who built The Pyramids, and the people frozen in Pompeii. It could also give us a possible answer to the missing link between ancient Mesopotamian & Egyptian cultures and the priestly men identified with a serpent, giving an understanding where the Maltese people truly come from.

There are so many other things linked to all of the above, like the Stonehenge in England and how similar it is to the structure of the Hypogeum, Atlantis and how Malta could be his island, Shemsu Hor and the Pharoh Akhenaten that I have just come across and starting to read into, it’s already making my head spin! – Something about underwater temples?!

Anyway, there are so many other historical sites not only in Malta but Gozo too, with their own stories of how they came to where they are today – for example Gozo and how it is known as the Island of Calypso.

What I don’t get is how under-rated Malta is when it comes to her history and the awareness of it not only in Malta itself but world-wide. I had never heard Malta mentioned in any of the things we learnt in Ancient History at school when we studied Egypt! I only know about these things because I have visited them. Even then, I had no idea about these abnormal skulls up until now! Malta is so under the radar it is not funny.

I have no doubt that we come from Egyptians, it is obvious in a lot of things, like for example the Eye of Horus on Malta’s watch towers from the wars and on the traditional Maltese fishing boat il-luzzu. But in saying that, Egyptians are not the only influence Malta had… I am one of those people that want to know where I came from, and have this passion for it. I feel that Malta has done good in excavating and discovering what it has up until today, but compared to other prehistoric findings around the world, we actually know nothing about those who lived in Malta before us.

I’m sure I am not the only one who thinks this way or asks these questions about the Hypogeum, and there probably are answers out there that I haven’t come across yet. Apologies to all those I know in Malta reading this who may already know of this all, I am just disappointed that nothing else has been discovered to explain what has already been found considering this day and age we are living in.

So my question is; did the artefacts found inside these places contradict modern belief depicting the use of genetic manipulation in our past? If any of these facts are true, then this is a big deal. And why the cover up?

Malta is a very special island. The treasures and history it has for such a small island are amazing. I just don't understand why nothing more has come from it.

If you know anymore about this, please feel free to share, I'm really intrigued about the whole of what I've stumbled upon - I'm continuing my reading on this cos I feel there is so much more to learn. For those that want to read more on it, I found these writings the most interesting:

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_maltaskulls_1.htm

http://forbiddenarchaeology.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/maltas-large-skulls.html

© Copyright Charmaine Cassar 2014