L'area centrale del santuario di Tas-Silġ a Malta in età tardo-ellenistica

The present work deals with the architectonic transformations in the central area of the Tas-Silġ sanctuary in Malta (close to Marsaxxlokk bay), with special focus on the late-Hellenistic phase (late 2nd early 1st b.c.). The cult site had been attended since the prehistorical age, and the central lobe of the temple erected in the Tarxien phase (3000 2500 B.C.) of the Maltese eneolithic was maintained during the following transformations. The arrival of Phoenician people on the island (end of VIII century) determined important architectural transformations involving the temple and the sacrifical praecinct, (VII VI cent.), which most important was the construction of the archaic ground altar at the entrance of the temple. The last of the major works which modelled the sanctuary face, transforming it into Christian church, was the late-Hellenistic one. The entire sanctuary area is delimited by an enclosure wall with towers and the space in front of the temple is monumentalized with a peristyled court with porches on the four sides, which reconstruction hypothesis was developed in the present thesis through the analysis of the architectural fragments.