Hagar Qim - Excavation and Restoration

Excavation and Restoration

Ħaġar Qim was first explored in 1839 at public expense during the Governorship of Sir Henry Bouverie, by T.G. Vance of the Royal Engineers. Within two short months, that officer had made a plan of the buildings and sent to Valletta a stone altar, a decorated slab and seven stone statuettes which are now exhibited in the Valletta Museum. The account of his excavations was published in 1842. Further excavations were done in 1835 by Dr. A.A. Caruana.

In 1885, Dr. A. A. Caruana made further excavations and published a lengthy report with elaborate plans, sections and views, drawn by Dr. Philip Vassallo of the Public Works Department.

Further excavations were carried out in 1909 by Sir Themistocles Zammit and T.E. Peet. The British School at Rome directed subsequent excavations to ensure that all ruins in the Ħaġar Qim area had been identified.

Sir Themistocles was part of the Research Council selected by the First International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Science.

In 1910, the surrounding fields were carefully searched and the ruins themselves accurately surveyed by members of the British School at Rome who repaired some of the damaged structures and made a rich collection of potsherds, flint implements, stone and clay objects, now deposited in the Valletta Museum.

In 17 September 1949, three statuettes and several pieces of a much larger stone statue were discovered buried beneath a rectangular stone. These statuettes, commonly known as the "fat ladies", are on display in the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta. The "Venus of Malta", which shares similar characteristics with the Ħaġar Qim statuettes, was discovered in 31 March 1950. It is important to note that the absence of sexual characteristics on the more developed types of Maltese cult-statuettes may imply that the being represented is in fact asexual.

Little has been done to restore the temple with the exception of reinforcing or replacing several stones, including the lintel, in the 1950s. Shelters have been constructed by Ħeritage Malta in an attempt to shield the temples from further erosion. A visitors' centre has been built near the temple, over what was originally a small restaurant. The visitors’ centre includes an auditorium for an audio-visual introduction and an exhibition space, displaying related artifacts and reproductions from the Museum of Archaeology as well as interactive exhibits.

The new structures have been the focus of some controversy, after MEPA's reports that construction be limited to the Magħlaq quarry (in the vicinity of Mnajdra) and not beside the Ħaġar Qim temples, were found to be misleading.