The First Maltese: Unravelling Malta’s Hunter-Gatherer Past

Recent archaeological discoveries at Latnija Cave have confirmed that the first people on Malta were not farmers, as previously thought, but rather hunter-gatherers. This hunter-gatherer presence on Malta connects the island’s past with a much deeper human prehistory and the peopling of Europe. It also sheds extraordinary light on the capabilities of  Mediterranean hunter-gatherers, who undertook among the earliest longest distance sea journeys in the world. This talk sheds light on this newly discovered chapter of Maltese prehistory, presenting what we know about these first ‘Maltese’, and the archaeological science behind it all.

Speakers

Prof. Eleanor Scerri (Human Palaeosystems Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany, Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Malta) is an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany where she is the head of the Human Palaeosystems Research Group. Her research focuses on the articulation between material culture, genetics and…