History of Hagar Qim

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 Zammit was part of the Research Council selected by the First International Congress of Prehistoric and Proto historic 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.

Examples of Maltese temple statuary

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