ADRIANO FORGIONE'S RESEARCH
Malta: The Skulls of the Mother Goddess
By Adriano Forgione (HERA magazine), Rome, Italy
In the megalithic temple of Hal Saflieni, in Malta, men with
extraordinary cranial volume were buried. These skulls seem
to belong to a strange human stock and if properly analyzed,
could create an ideal link between the ancient Mesopotamian
and Egyptian cultures and a race of sacerdotal men identified
with the snake.
We are back from a visit in Malta. We followed the traces of an
ancient story that originated from the presence of megalithic temples
dedicated to the Mother Goddess on the island, a thaumaturgic
figure, adored in pre-historical times of this island that was to become
an important cult center. We was founding the possibility to try to
resolve a mystery of interesting implications. It was known that until
1985 a number of skulls, found in pre-historic Maltese temples at
Taxien, Ggantja and Hal Saflieni, were exposed in the Archeological
Museum of the Valletta. But since a few years ago, these were
removed and placed in rolex replica the deposits. From then, they were not to be
seen by the public. Only the photographs taken by the Maltese
researcher Dr. Anton Mifsud and his colleague, Dr. Charles Savona
Ventura, remained to testify the existence of the skulls and
prove襩r abnormality. Books written by the two Maltese doctors,
who since our first day in Malta helpfully provided us the necessary
documentation for our research, illustrate a collection of skulls that
show peculiar abnormalities and/or pathologies. Sometimes inexistent
cranial knitting lines, abnormally developed temporal partitions,
drilled and swollen occiputs as following recovered traumas, but
above all, a strange, lengthened skull, bigger and more peculiar than
the others, lacking of the median knitting. The presence of this finding
leads to a number of possible hypotheses. The similitude with other
similar skulls, from Egypt to South America, the particular deformity,
unique in the panorama of medical pathology referred to such distant
times, (we are talking about approximately 3000 years before Christ)
could be an exceptional discovery. Was that skull a result ancient
genetic mutation between different races that lived on that island?
The dolichocephalous skulls
A request to the museum's management would have certainly failed if
it weren't for the intercession of the minister of tourism, Michael
Refalo, whom we met at the end of a press conference organized by
Dr. Robert Zammit, of the Maltese Provincial Tourism Board. The
minister, whose interest in the matter we enhanced, accompanied us
personally to the nearby museum, snatching the director's permission
to bring out those mysterious craniums, conserved far from the sight
of curious onlookers and researchers since about 15 years. A couple
of days later, in replica watches uk fact, guided by the museum's authorities, we were
received in a reserved area, closed to public, where the extraordinary
exhibits were brought, before our eyes, under the supervision and
gentle accessibility of the museum's archeologist, Mark Anthony
Mifsud, almost homonymous of the previous researcher. The skulls
were all found in the Hal Saflieni hypogeum, where a sacred well was
dedicated to the Mother Goddess and where also the small statue of
a sleeping goddess was found, associated to a relic with a snake
inscription on it. The skulls were brought out of their box one at a
time. Among these, all very interesting, was the one we were looking
for. 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 considered "impossible" by medics and anatomists to whom
we turned, not having (as far as known) analogous pathological cases
in international medical literature. It is a characteristic that emphasizes
the anomaly of this finding with the result of producing a natural
lengthening of the cranium in the occipital area (not due to bandaging
or boards as used in pre-Colombian civilizations). We believe that
the discovery of this skull and the like at Hal Saflieni isn't accidental.
The priests of the goddess
Malta and Gozo were very important centers since pre-historic times,
places where "medical cures" were conducted, oracles and ritual
encounters with the priests of the goddess. There, on both the
islands, existed many sanctuaries and thaumaturgic centers, where
priests surrounded the healing goddess, direct expression of her
divinity. It is well known that, in antiquity, the serpent was associated
to the goddess and to 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
that was defined, in all the most ancient cultures, as the "serpent
priests" (an epithet still in use for shamans Hera, page 24). Perhaps
the skulls found in the hypogeum and examined during our visit to
Malta, belonged indeed to these priests. As mentioned before, they
present an accentuated dolichocephalous, which is particularly the
center of our analysis. The long head and drawn features must have
given a serpent-like appearance, stretching the eyes and skin.
Lacking the lower part of replica watches the exhibit, we can only speculate, but the
hypothesis can't be far from reality, a reality worsened buy the fact
that such deformities certainly created walking problems, forcing
himlither! The lack of the cranium's median knitting and
therefore, the impossibility of the brain's consistent, radial expansion
in the skullcap, did so that it developed in the occipital zone of the
cerebellum, deforming the cranium that looked like a single cap from
the frontal and occipital area. This must have certainly caused the
man terrible agony since infancy, but probably enhanced visions that
were considered as being proof of a bond with the goddess.
A different race
Even the other skulls we examined presented strange anomalies.
Some were more natural and harmonic than the cranium that mostly
gained our attention, but they still presented a pronounced natural
dolichocephalous and we could assume, without fear of refutation,
that it is distinctive of an actual race, different to the native
populations of Malta and Gozo. This consideration was confirmed by
the Maltese archeologists themselves, Anthony Buonanno and Mark
Anthony Mifsud, who said: "They are another race although C-14 or
DNA exams haven't yet been performed. Perhaps these individuals
originated from Sicily". We shall discuss this detail further on.
Meanwhile, it's worth the while to emphasize that one of these skulls
showed unequivocal signs of surgical intervention in the occipital
area. 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 motorial 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, present artificially performed
deformations. A skeleton of the group that was unburied by the
archeologist, Brochtorff Circle, shows clear signs of intentional
deformation through bondage. These deformations occurred for
various reasons: initiations, matrimonies, solar rituals or punishments
for social crimes or transgressions. 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 in such, but "with best intentions" for the
community. Why such persistence in tormenting one's own body?
Was there any connection between the tribal rituals and the men of
the lengthened cranium? Could it be possible that, as in other
cultures, successive populations tended to deform their infant's heads
in order to make them similar to this race of "serpent priests"? 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
and, never having blended with the local populations, had continued
reproducing through the millenniums within familiar unions (as was the
usual practice among the elite) and consequently impoverished its
genetic patrimony until inevitable pathologies manifested, finally
disappearing.
The origins
The skulls we examined are dated 2500 B.C. (but may be even
older) a date in which Malta's megalithic history ends, initiating a
period of historical darkness and absence of population that will last
about 300 years, until the arrival of the Phoenicians. These will begin
to make Malta their Mediterranean outpost. The Phoenicians will
also erect temples to the Mother Goddess in Malta, calling her
Astarte, the snake-faced Goddess. Again we find the representation
of a Goddess who is associated with the snake and healing powers,
almost as if the Phoenicians wanted to continue an interrupted
tradition. But it's the date of 2500 B.C. that presents a fundamental
key of interpretation for understanding who these long-headed
individuals were and to use it we must move from Malta to nearby
Egypt.
Professor Walter B. Emery (1903-1971), the famous Egyptologist,
author of "Archaic Egypt", who excavated at Saqquara in the 30's,
indeed discovered the remains of individuals who lived in
pre-dynastic 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 pre-dynastic
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 entire Egypt. The theory of the existence of
this race is supported by the discovery in the pre-dynastic tombs, in
the northern part of Higher Egypt, of the anatomical remains of
individuals with bigger skulls and builds than the native population,
with so much difference 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's noticeable that in Lower Egypt, the pharaoh's symbol is a
bee named "Bit". It isn't coincidental that Malta's ancient name is
"Melita", which derives from the Latin word for honey. Malta's
symbol was also a bee and its hexagonal cells. Melita has its origin in
"Mel" or "Mer" that in Ancient Egypt was the name attributed to the
pyramids. Besides, the English term, "honey" is strictly related to the
original name of Helliopolis, which is "ON". It is an interesting
correlation that in Egypt, the Shemsu Hor guaranteed the respect of a
solar religion and even today in Malta the sun is called "Shem-shi".
"Shem" is a word of "accadic" origin, not Egyptian, deriving from the
Babylonian term for the sun, that is "Shamash". This proves that the
Shemsu Hor came from the fertile half-moon area. An umpteenth
correlation is the fact that this sacerdotal long-skulled caste
disappeared in Egypt, as in Malta in the same period, which is
between 3000 and 2500 B.C. Who writes is convinced, although,
that a third nucleus was present in the Euphrates zone, becoming part
of the Arian stock known as Mithans, who the Egyptians called
"Naharin", "Those of the Snake" (from Nahash, snake). The Mithans,
who occupied a part of the Kurdistan area, were Abraham's people
(Hera 15, page 26), whose description is analogous to that of the
Shemsu Hor made by Emery (fair hair and robust build). The
"serpent priest" tradition (Hera 13 and 14) originates in the Middle
East, with its foremost center right in Kurdistan, where at about 5000
B.C. the matriarchal culture of Jarmo represented the mother
goddesses as divinities with faces of vipers and lengthened heads.
These divinities will successively be associated to the "fallen angels"
or Nephelims, that are most explicitly cited in the "Testament of
Amran" in the Qumran scrolls (Hera 6, page 52) in which is written:
"One of them was of terrifying aspect, like a snake and his mantle
was multicolored" and also "his face was that of a viper and he wore
all his eyes". It concerns, in our opinion, not divinities in the strict
sense, but individuals in sacerdotal or shaman expression, belonging
to a highly developed and profoundly wise culture that had
relationships with lesser-organized societies of the period. Its
members were considered as "half-gods" for the knowledge they
possessed, just like in Egypt with the Shemsu Hor. Analogous
viper-faced statues of mother goddesses are found in the land of the
Nile, dating back exactly from the archaic period of the Shemsu Hor.
It can be therefore 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. -Hera page 10) 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. It concerns the Mithans and the
pharaoh Akhenaton. The reason why Akhenaton was linked to the
Mithans will be the subject of a following article but the way he was
portrayed in his statues and bas-reliefs (and with him, the whole royal
family) is indeed that of an individual of lengthened head and human
face but with serpent-likeness, characteristics found in the
pre-dynastic Egyptian stock mentioned by Emery, besides being the
exact representation of the features of the Nephelims and probably
the long-skulled individuals of Malta. The craniums of the Amarnian
dynasty statues and the Malta craniums result as being practically
identical, a not so fortuitous fact, also proved by the X-rays of
Tuthankamon's skull, Akhenaton's son, which showed a
dolichocephalous cranium. Substantially, the Maltese craniums are
the relics, archeologically still not understood; of a sacerdotal race
that, in Egypt and Malta, from archaic ages, survived till 2500 B.C.
It's the group that created the religious and spiritual sub-strata that
characterized the greatest civilizations of the Old World, from long
ago (600 B.C. or even earlier). This group continued in the Middle
East and somehow returned in Egypt around 1351 B.C. giving birth,
through the heretic pharaoh Akhenaton (he was dolicochephalic too),
to a religious reform that aimed to restore the ancient order. And if
the hypothesis that this pharaoh was linked someway to the figure of
Moses is accepted, then the rest is history.
