The 4.2 ka Event and the End of the Maltese “Temple Period”

Abstract

The small size and relatively challenging environmental conditions of the semi-isolated Maltese archipelago mean that the area offers an important case study of societal change and human-environment interactions. Following an initial phase of Neolithic settlement, the “Temple Period” in Malta began ∼5.8 thousand years ago (ka), and came to a seemingly abrupt end ∼4.3 ka, and was followed by Bronze Age societies with radically different material culture. Various ideas concerning the reasons for the end of the Temple Period have been expressed. These range from climate change, to invasion, to social conflict resulting from the development of a powerful “priesthood.” Here, we explore the idea that the end of the Temple Period relates to the 4.2 ka event. The 4.2 ka event has been linked with several examples of significant societal change around the Mediterranean, such as the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, yet its character and relevance have been debated. The Maltese example offers a fascinating case study for understanding issues such as chronological uncertainty, disentangling cause and effect when several different processes are involved, and the role of abrupt environmental change in impacting human societies. Ultimately, it is suggested that the 4.2 ka event may have played a role in the end of the Temple Period, but that other factors seemingly played a large, and possibly predominant, role. As well as our chronological modelling indicating the decline of Temple Period society in the centuries before the 4.2 ka event, we highlight the possible significance of other factors such as a plague epidemic.

Decline in seasonal predictability potentially destabilized Classic Maya societies

“…S1) underwent an inexorable process of fragmentation that was not followed by the emergence of new urban settlements, populations in the northern lowlands persisted 27,29 . The patterns of societal stress and resilience against precipitation changes are consistent with archaeological studies of climate and cultural change in different parts of the globe, including South America 30 , Late Antique Turkey 31 , Arabia 32 , Malta 33 and Postclassic Period Mayapan (Yucatan, Mexico) 12 .…”

“…Sample size has also been suggested to be an issue with some archaeologists indicating minimum sample size estimates 88 , while others suggest that sample size thresholds should be dependent on the scale, granularity, and magnitude of specific variations of concern 85,89 . Statistical analyses suggest larger sample sizes reduce confidence envelopes 83 , though many models have been criticized for both excessive noise and over-smoothing of the data to remove this noise 33,90,91 . In this study we use Bayesian inference where the prior for each observation point is effectively the kernel density estimate distribution of all the other radiocarbon dates in the dataset using the KDE_Model function in OxCal 91 .…”

Fuerzas productivas y relaciones de producción en el centro y el este de la península ibérica entre 2200 y 1550 a. n. e.

“…El evento 4.2 ka cal BP, con su probable coincidencia o concatenación de crisis climática, epidemia, movimientos migratorios a gran escala y conflictos sociales, no se prolongó más allá de ca. 2000 a. n. e. (Meller et al, 2015;Lawrence et al, 2021;Groucutt et al, 2022). Al mismo tiempo, a partir de ca.…”