Up until recently it was generally accepted that the first human inhabitants of the Maltese islands were Early Neolithic farmers who travelled to the archipelago around 7,400 years ago. A discovery made a few years ago, following by excavations and analyses has now pushed this date back by a millennium! A cave in the north of Malta has evidence that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers hunted, fished and foraged in the area. Research is ongoing but a first paper has been published on the project in the journal Nature. In this video I discuss this paper, as well as some earlier research that had suggested a Palaeolithic presence in Malta.
#ancienthistory #mediterranean #mesolithic
✨ IN THIS EPISODE
00:00 Introduction
01:29 Neolithic Malta
05:13 The Mesolithic Site
09:46 Mediterranean Sea-faring
11:48 Neanderthals In Malta
17:42 Għar Ħasan Cave Paintings
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✨ REFERENCES
Keith, A., 1924. Neanderthal man in Malta. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 54, pp.251-260.
Malone, C., McLaughlin, T., Stoddart, S., Vella, N., Parkinson, E. and Grima, R., 2020, December. Temple Places: Excavating cultural sustainability in Prehistoric Malta: Monograph 2 of the ERC Fragsus project. In National Museum of Archaeology-Malta Archaeological Socieyu. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Mineo, M., Mazzucco, N., Rottoli, M., Remolins, G., Caruso-Ferme, L., & Gibaja, J. (2023). Textiles, basketry and cordage from the Early Neolithic settlement of La Marmotta, Lazio. Antiquity, 97(392), 314-330.
Rossi, S., Prampolini, M., Galea, C., Valle, G.D., Caruana, A. and Soldati, M., 2025. Geomorphological evidence of the Malta‐Sicily land‐bridge during the Last Glacial Maximum inferred from seismic profiles. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(2), p.e6061.
Scerri, E.M.L., Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H.S. et al. Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands. Nature (2025). A., 1924. Neanderthal man in Malta. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 54, pp.251-260.
Malone, C., McLaughlin, T., Stoddart, S., Vella, N., Parkinson, E. and Grima, R., 2020, December. Temple Places: Excavating cultural sustainability in Prehistoric Malta: Monograph 2 of the ERC Fragsus project. In National Museum of Archaeology-Malta Archaeological Socieyu. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Mineo, M., Mazzucco, N., Rottoli, M., Remolins, G., Caruso-Ferme, L., & Gibaja, J. (2023). Textiles, basketry and cordage from the Early Neolithic settlement of La Marmotta, Lazio. Antiquity, 97(392), 314-330.
Rossi, S., Prampolini, M., Galea, C., Valle, G.D., Caruana, A. and Soldati, M., 2025. Geomorphological evidence of the Malta‐Sicily land‐bridge during the Last Glacial Maximum inferred from seismic profiles. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(2), p.e6061.
Scerri, E.M.L., Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H.S. et al. Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands. Nature (2025).
✨ PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
CC BY 4.0 DEED
Images related to the Mesolithic site research, credit: Scerri, E.M.L et al in the paper referenced above.
Sea-level change since 20,000 years ago, credit: Rossi, S. et al in the paper referenced above.
Dugout canoe from Lake Marmotta, credit: Mineo, M. et al in the paper referenced above.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Latnija cave, credit: Bellina 09
Għar Ħasan, credit: Marika Caruana
Google Earth
Maps and location pins
Other photographs, credit: MegalithHunter
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Fascinating! Great video!
Malta is 45 nautical miles out, so you probably can't see it from Sicily, but you could paddle/sail away from sicily until it's quite far, then another island (malta) becomes visible. But to want to do that you'd need some reason to go out that far, and I'm sure a better sea boat than a lake canoe. boats are very rarely preserved well, so there is not much to go on there. And a larger boat with many paddlers or rowers and maybe a sail even would go faster than 2 knots
Aboriginals made sea journeys to Australian at least 65,000 years ago
Two reasons for people to move (I have worked with refugees for 15 years): famine or political oppression (tyrants or invasions). Invasions themselves are often enough triggered by climate issues where the invaders come from=famine, but later, it was just to conquer more land for tax money…or just to live by having land to farm (so we are back to famine). So, I would venture that these intrepid sea farers were looking for a place to live that would have more resources.
Mesolithic Hunter gatherers seem to be very likely on Malta possibly as part of an exodus from persecution on Sicily due differences in religion. Look at the persecution of Huguenots in France as a more modern example, part of my background genetics is Huguenot.
Yeah but they might have been able to walk to Malta depending on when glacial melt isolated the islands. 10,000 years ago on the bathymetric map shows us how, and that map indicates dry land at that date. And were the temples isolated by the sea? If not they appear to be part of a larger Neolithic landscape. Certainly boats were probably known anyway.
Excellent video. There were mesolithic settlers in Sardinia as well.
I think more will be discovered. The taught of marking the journey by dug outs is only assumed possible due to the findings in Marmota canoes, however we also know you could not make it from Sicily to Malta in daylight with muscle power. So it’s assumed that they used land markers or stars to navigate. Now we pushed the existence of humans even deeper and with this discovery and yet we still thinking of canoes used for crossings. Thus we are assuming that they had already the knowledge of star navigation ? So in a 1000 years nothing happened in the evolution of the boat until well after the Neolithic people arrived? They still used dugouts !
As well said the Neanderthal claimed tooth was found in the deer layer and a lot was done to debunk the idea. Now we have evidence that humans were around when the red deer was around so I don’t think it was a mistake at all.Just maybe not Neanderthal but hybrid ?
The land bridge Malta Sicily was best at 20000 years ago during the maximum glacier peak but still present 14400 years ago, but was no longer by 12900 years ,ago. We know that certain animals like pigmy elephants crossed the land bridge. We also know that men was hunter gatherers Homo sapiens as Neanderthals should theoretically be extinct by 40000 years ago which is not the fact in Spain and Gibraltar, and what about hybrids ? My hypothesis is that when the animals moved south for better climate and food so did the hunter gatherers they followed like they always did. The question of boats is not just a question of having a floatation device that you can wade from point A to B on the coast or to an island you can clearly see. It’s a huge gamble to take for no guarantees that’s what I believe. Man came buy land bridge eventually died out when the island was then isolated by the raising seas and got extinct like the animals . The Neolithic farmers much more technologically advanced arrived later to start settlements. Ofcouse this is all hypothetical but so is the arrival with canoes.Hope that the next excavations in this gem location provide a much more clear understanding or direct human evidence that can give a much more stronger convictions and evidence. Well done for your program and to the researchers .
Extraordinary. I've always been fascinated by our ancient ancestors' courageous ability to cross wide expanses of water in what I've always assumed to be "rudimentary" craft. Now it seems increasingly clear, to me at least, that their craft many thousands of years ago must have been much more sophisticated and the sailors' expertise on the high seas more advanced
than perhaps we have tended to give credit for. Many thanks for such an interesting video and pleased to welcome you back.
A very interesting, fascinating and in depth video!
Doesn't the tooth fairy keep records?
Funny as hell.
Stonehenge is twice as old and built using boats too.
Why else did they sit in the quarry for 5k years ?
Been saying it for over 10 years. Dry rivers that were wet
And totem poles for unloading boats.
More evidence we don't need to wait for farmers to arrive to roll rocks accross the hills.
More volume.
If Neanderthals and Paleolithic humans made use of marine food resources, the evidence of that use should have been confined to sites along the coast; but many of these are now underwater. Could that explain why such evidence was found only in Neolithic sites?
The presentation is much improved, congratulations! However, you still should be more selective about the contents. There are too many details in the paper that are important to archaeologists who may want to evaluate or dispute the paper, but are irrelevant to your watchers. Like how the site was divided into squares: that is done in every excavation, and has no relevance to the conclusions! Or that there was sterile sediment below and above the human habitation levels. Halfway through the video I found myself overloaded and not paying attention any more. Cut down on the words and leave more pauses (especially at topic breaks, or when showing images).
Thank you Laura, great video, and I'm glad you're back, I missed you!
Regarding the sea level around 9.000 years ago I'm confused. In the 2024 paper of Brocard et al regarding the forming of the double tombolo at Orbetello the sea level at that time was much lower ("Double tombolo formation by regressive barrier widening and landside submergence: The case of Orbetello, Italy").
Laura, we have assisted your important Videos for years now, and you have a special place in our Hearts, and we are ready (here and now) to “comment-bomb” your latest Fantastic Video.
If you, or your Public give us a signal, we will go on and also give evidence that the Neanderthals came from “American Cradles” and of Shipyards on the inland rivers of Brazil
I’m surprised no one dated the shells. It is possible to extract the carbon from the calcium carbonate that the shell contains. This carbon is then subjected to conventional C14 analysis. Making sea shells sneaky little “clocks”. The down side is cost. 2-3 times the cost per sample. Pointing to the “frugal” nature of archeology in general.
But then….. a road is to be built. An engineer is given $1 million to do the job. Then a bone is found. Construction is paused for a week. An archeologist is given $20, a bicycle, a note book and a pencil and told “investigate”……
So frugality is assumed.
🦊
In the course of the last 2 Million years, “out of Americans” took “Homo erectus” and “Neanderthals” with them on their Ships (together with young Horses), to do the hard and dangerous work for them, thas is mining, as well as herding and slaughtering of Megafauna to harvest their fatty nutritional meat, to keep Humans, Neanderthals and dogs Fed without Agriculture yet in place, or even needed.
The “Cart Ruts” make part of an industrial scale “transport system” based on Gravity (which is why you do not find evidence of Animal or Human Traction in between the Ruts).
The “transport system” was needed to transport, by gravity, the mined product to the ships.
The often bulky “Mined Products” were mostly needed for “further Expansions”, and Malta was just a Basis and Crossroad on an “out of America” and “into Eurasia” Route in between departures and destinations (between continents and locally)
Great video Laura, interesting stuff, a great shame that no DNA test has been done on those teeth, but I suppose that we couldn't have something that might contradict the well trodden consensus like actual proof lol.
At last! I was worries I didn't see your broadcasts for quite a while!
In the course of the last 2 million years, out of americans took Homo erectus and Neanderthals with them on their ships, to do the hard and dangerous work for them, thas is mining and herding and slaughtering megafauna for their fatty nutritional meat to keep them all fed without agriculture yet in place or even needed.
The cart ruts make part of a transport system based on gravity (that is why you do not find evidence of animal or human traction in between the ruts).
The transport system was needed to transport, by gravity, the mined product to the ships.
The mined products were mostly needed for further expansions, Malta was just a basis on an out of america into eurasia route in between destinations.
Laura……..I believe you asked if I was on vacation.
Not quite.
My bus/limo license was dropped by the government.
I'm out of work.
The Government could not find my medical report which is required for someone my age.
I have re-applied………my bosses are all over the government office that is handling this.
I should be back to work soon.
Other you tube creators shared their stories of Government offices dropping a variety of licences…….with no explanation.
Sorry………not quite on the subject matter you presented.
We are doing fine………but I miss the work……..meeting new people.
Quite advanced navigation even over oceans is evidenced even 2 million years back.
All DNA based “Ancestral Markers” point to “out of Americas”, and not to “out of Africa” that still is supported by consensus, but already hanging on a thread.
The most important migrations out of the Americas make use of the strongest currents of the world that take the ships leaving the Americas to the by the gyres defined landing places on the returning points of that gyre on the other side of the oceans.
As an example, a ship leaves the north east of Brazil, central america (today vera cruz) or the east coast of the united states, and lands on the shore of Stonehenge in the UK, Carnac in France, amongst many other places on the european atlantic facade.
Malta is an easy, logical and extremely strategic extension and base for further expansion etc
We are seeing an enlightenment on Neanderthals, they had every reason to visit Malta. Chris Stringer et al will be wishing they would go away.
Laura, so great you could come out with yet another unique video
🌹
howdy, Laura! very interesting concept, Neanderthals on Malta. i can't really see the problem here. if Malta and Sicily were connected by land when the Neanderthals were around and animals migrated there, why not human animals, too?! the urge to see what's over the hill or around the next bend would almost guarantee their presence, not to mention the following of the faunal migrations. perhaps their presence was only periodical; seasonal, say, when this plant was ripe or that animal was mature or…..? the lack of evidence for a Neanderthal presence could be just that there were no long term camps or settlements; they only visited then went back home. i don't know….just thinking out loud, sorta😮
anyway…..my premiere luck is still bad, dammit🤬 guess i'll just have to live with it….catch one when i can……quit worrying 'bout it…..grumble, grumble, waaaaa😭 at least i get to watch and comment after the fact🤩 sssooo, see ya later, Lauragator😊
So humans find their way, and taking risks is clearly of evolutionary benefit.
Very interesting video again, thank You!
love your content, please try to change the striped background, it creates too much visual tension
Well done laura, nice to see that it's been proved the age of the first settlers has increased by a thousand years.🙂