This small figurine has an entire room dedicated to it in the National Museum of Archaeology (Valletta). The museum houses a remarkable collection of Maltese prehistoric art from the Neolithic period (5200–2500 BCE).
As our favorite instructor used to say during guide training: Malta has experienced two “Golden Ages” — the time of the Knights of St. John and the Neolithic era. Yet while the Knights are widely known, the prehistoric era attracts only a narrow circle of specialists.
It raises more questions than it answers — people back then could not write… but they knew how to grow crops, domesticate animals, build temples, and reflect life — in other words, they knew how to create art.
What did people understand about life? That it eventually ends. They tried to comprehend death, but neither then nor now have we found any definitive answers. All that remained was to explore its mysteries through art.
This 12-cm clay figurine, called “The Sleeping Lady”, was discovered in the early 20th century in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum — an underground sanctuary used for burials. Archaeologists found the remains of around seven thousand individuals there. But the Hypogeum was more than a massive cemetery — it might have been a place where people tried to understand the mysteries of existence alongside the dead. The figurine was presumably found in the so-called “Oracle Room”, a special chamber within the necropolis.
A woman lies on a couch, resting her head on one hand, peacefully asleep. Her body is full and heavy, and the slight sag in the bed beneath her weight is delicately noted by the prehistoric sculptor. And yet, her figure is graceful and even sensual, despite the exaggerated, unrealistic proportions. Does this mean she is not a woman but a goddess? Perhaps. Or perhaps the artist was simply admiring the beauty of the female form.
Is the “Sleeping Lady” in the hands of Morpheus or Thanatos? It’s hard to say — the mystery of the eternal sleep remains unsolved. One of Malta’s leading archaeologists, David Trump, in his book Prehistoric Malta and the Megalithic Temples, suggests that the figurine may represent a person who lies down in hopes of healing, or perhaps one awaiting a prophetic dream — given its discovery in the Oracle Room.
There are many interpretations, but no definitive answer. Prehistoric history is one giant question mark — as our dear teacher used to say. Fittingly, this punctuation mark is even displayed on the museum floor at the transition between the prehistoric exhibit and the Phoenician era — the age of the invention of writing.
But this question mark is not hopeless. On the contrary, it — like all prehistoric art — urges us to reflect on the fundamental questions of existence: Who are we? Where did we come from, and where are we going? What is life, and what is death?
May each of us find our own answer — and may “The Sleeping Lady” of Malta, a tiny figurine from a small island with a grand history, help us along the way.
En
Ru
