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OUR STORY © Mario Ellul, De La Salle Junior Section 2013 1

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Dear Friends Welcome to the second book in this series! We hope that you have enjoyed the first book. This booklet is designed to help you ENJOY history and to learn many interesting things about OUR STORY. History is fun and that is the most important thing in our lessons. We want you to enjoy them. We would also like you to TAKE PART by sharing your knowledge with your friends and your teachers. Do not be afraid to discuss and share your opinions about the information in this booklet in class and at home. Throughout the booklet, you will also be asked to perform some tasks and jobs. We would like you to put in your best effort and also to do that little something extra which will enrich your knowledge. Enjoy OUR STORY and make sure that you ask your teacher for help if you cannot perform any of the tasks or if you cannot understand any parts.

To the parents:

This booklet aims at helping your children acquire some important skills in the study of history and to

think critically about the material presented. Only A VERY SMALL fraction of the material has to be

memorised (this will be pointed out by the class teachers). DO NOT make the children memorise any

passages or answers to given questions. Our main aim at this stage is to build the foundations which

later on will help the children to acquire a love for the subject and to develop a critical mind set. Your

children may need some help in some tasks presented in this booklet, however do not let them become

too dependent on your input – in some cases adequate supervision/ monitoring may be enough. Make

sure that you take all the safety precautions if your children are surfing the net to help them with any of

the tasks. Should you have any queries or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact the class teacher.

On completion of this booklet, the children should have achieved these targets:

1. Remember the abbreviations B.C and A.D and know their meaning

2. Remember and understand the meaning of the term Pre-History

3. Understand the difference between Pre-History and History

4. Revise and remember the concept of a timeline

5. Know what the Phoenicians were famous for

6. Know about the significance of the Phoenicians in Maltese history

7. Know how Malta came to be part of the Roman Empire.

Ideally, this booklet should be complemented with visits to the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta and

some other sites mentioned in these pages. Visits to all these sites cannot be fitted in the school

calendar, so parents are encouraged to take the children on visits for them to appreciate and understand

better what they have learnt in class.

OUR STORY

© Mario Ellul, De La Salle College Junior Section 2013


Around 1,500 years ago, a monk called Dionysius made a very important invention. Dionysius was trying to draw up a calendar to show the dates for the celebration of Easter. For Christians this is very important as it is the most important feast in our Church.

Dionysius calculated the date of birth of Jesus and called it YEAR ZERO. The letters B.C were written after all the dates which fell before the birth of Jesus. The letters A.D were written after all the dates which fell after the birth of Jesus.

We still use this system, however some years ago, a new system was invented for those people who are not Christians and may find it a bit of a problem to use the word Christ. In the new system, everything was left exactly as it was – but instead of using the letters B.C (Before Christ), they started using B.C.E (Before the Common Era). Instead of using A.D (Anno Domini), they started using C.E (Common Era).

B.C stands for BEFORE CHRIST

A.D stands for ANNO DOMINI

The words Anno Domini

are in the language of the ancient Romans and the Church.

They mean – THE YEAR OF OUR LORD.


Let us look at a timeline calendar of some important buildings to see when they were built.

2500 B.C The Great Pyramid of Giza

was built in Egypt

200 B.C The Great Wall of

China

80 A.D The Colosseum is built

in Rome

1889 A.D The Eiffel Tower

in Paris

YEAR 0 Jesus is born in

Palestine


Here are some famous people from history. The dates show their dates of birth. Use these pictures to make your own timeline of these famous people on page 7.

JULIUS CAESAR Born in the year 100 B.C

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Born in the year 356 B.C

NELSON MANDELA

Born in the year 1918 A.D

MARGARETH THATCHER

Born in the year

1925 A.D

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Born in the year

1769 A.D


Choose one of the people from page 5 and draw up a mini-project about him/her on this page.


I


t is very important to remember that Pre-History is the time before the invention of writing. Last year, you have learnt a lot about this period in Maltese history, which is mostly famous for the fantastic temples which were built at that time. Let us use this timeline to see a short summary of pre-history now.

ALWAYS Remember that PRE-HISTORY – means the period of time BEFORE the invention of writing.

5200 B.C The first man arrive in Malta from Sicily

Għar Dalam We do not know for certain why and how this period ended

Ġgantija (Gozo), Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Tarxien Around the year 3000 B.C, these people were using Copper – which is a metal – so we cannot call it the Stone Age any more! Copper is not found naturally in Malta – so it had to be brought from abroad. Copper is a soft metal.

Around 4,000 B.C A new group of people arrives in Malta

Around 2,000 B.C The ‘temple builders’ disappear.

Most probably a new group of people took our island from its old owners. The Bronze Age people had new tools made out of a stronger metal – BRONZE – which is made out of a mixture of Copper and Tin.

Around the year 1,000 B.C The Phoenicians arrive in Malta

The Phoenicians were great sailors and traders who came from the Eastern Mediterranean. They had a written language Pre-History stops here.


The Phoenicians arrived in Malta around the year 1,000 B.C. They arrived here in their wooden ships. At first the Phoenicians just stopped here to sell things or to water or food on their ships, but in time some of them settled here for good.

The Phoenicians came from this area of the Mediterranean. The area is nowadays parts of the modern countries called Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

The Phoenicians were great sailors. They travelled all around the Mediterranean with their ships and even sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Malta was an ideal place to set up a base. It is right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and the harbours are big and sheltered.

The Phoenicians started the city of Carthage in North Africa. In time Carthage became very rich and powerful.


The Phoenicians were good sailors who built excellent ships. They had plenty of forests in their country from which they cut down trees and built strong ships.

The Phoenicians bought and sold many goods on their trips. However the thing they were mostly famous for was their purple cloth.

The natural colour of cloth made from sheep’s wool or cotton was a dirty yellowish white. Coloured cloth was very expensive and purple was considered to be the colour worn by rich and powerful people. In some places only kings wore purple.

The Phoenicians made purple dye (that is the colour which is used on cloth) by boiling the flesh of a sea snail called Murex.

A big main sail moved the ship forward with the force of the wind.

The main mast held the sail in place. The sail could be rolled up and opened.

Cargo was carried in pottery jars called amphorae. Here is one amphora tied securely to the ship.

Oars helped to move the ship when the wind was not strong enough

A big oar like rudder helped to give direction to the ship.


This picture, which was painted on a Phoenician vase is used by archaeologists and historians to give us details about the Phoenicians and their activities.

Imagine that you are an archaeologist who is studying this object.

Look carefully at the picture and fill in the blanks in this paragraph to show what is happening.

Some of the people in the picture have been labelled with a letter. Match the letter to these phrases which are describing the actions.

This sailor is steering the ship with the rudder

This person is buying something from the Phoenicians

This Phoenician sailor is weighing stuff to sell or buy on land

This sailor has climbed the mast to take in the sail

This sailors are carrying amphorae from the ship to land

Phoenician ships were powered by _______________________ and by

______________________.

They travelled from place to place to _______________________________________

____________________________________________________________________.

Some of the goods on their ships were carried in _____________________________

which were __________________________________________________________.


The Phoenicians have remained very famous for inventing a very special kind of alphabet. Before them, people like the Egyptians had used writing in a very special way – they used drawings called hieroglyphics.

Here is an example of what Egyptian writing looked like:

The Phoenicians went a step better – they invented symbols for different letters of the alphabet. Some of the symbols invented by the Phoenicians are still used in our modern alphabets.

Here is the Phoenician Alphabet with its modern translation.

That looks a bit complicated!

That looks much easier to remember than mine!


Look at the Phoenician alphabet again to answer these questions.

Which letters of the modern alphabet look very similar to the Phoenician alphabet? (write both the Phoenician and the modern letters)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Which letters are completely different?

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

One of the best discoveries made in Malta from Phoenician times is the Ċippus. The Ċippus can be seen at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. There were two Ċippi. Originally they were big candlesticks which were offered to the Phoenician God Melkart as thanks for a grace received. One of the Ċippi is now in Paris because it was given as a gift to the King of France by Grandmaster de Rohan in 1780. (Go to page 18 for some more details)

Can you notice that the vowels are completely missing? The Phoenician alphabet had 22 consonants but no vowels! It was written right to left with no spaces in between words.


Since the Phoenicians were great sailors, the Maltese harbours must have been very important for them.

It seems that the most popular harbour with the Phoenicians in Malta was Marsaxlokk. Most probably this faced the most popular routes they travelled on. Another reason could be that Marsaxlokk had sandy beaches, on which the Phoenicians could pull their ships on shore safely – especially if they were going to stay long in that port.

In Marsaxlokk, in the place which today we call Tas-Silġ, the Phoenicians built a magnificent temple to honour their god Ashtart.

Most probably they anchored their ships in the harbour and then climbed up the hill to pray to Ashtart and thank her for a safe voyage.


The Phoenicians worshipped many gods. Some of them, and their stories were borrowed from other great civilizations – such as the Egyptians.

Here are some of the main gods which the Phoenicians worshipped.

Ashtart was a female god. This god was famous all over the Mediterranean and many people worshipped her. She was the goddess of fertility and she was the daughter of the sky and the earth. The Phoenicians believed that the evening star (the first star which appears at night) was her! Her other symbols were the horse, the sphinx, the lion and the dove.

The name Melqart meant THE KING OF THE CITY. It was the tradition to build a temple to Melqart in each new Phoenician harbour as he was considered to be the protector of traders. When the Phoenician traders concluded a business deal they promised to keep their word in Melqart’s name. Melqart is very similar to the Greek god Heracles (known to the Romans as Hercules).


The Ċippi were two huge stone candlesticks which were found in Malta in the late 1600s when Malta was ruled by the Knights of St. John.

This discovery was very important.

For many years, the Phoenician language had been forgotten. Then these two Ċippi were discovered. The writing carved on them was in two languages - the Phoenician language and Greek.

That was great news – Greek was still widely known and studied. So, the experts studied the writing carefully and they could come up with a dictionary of the Phoenician language.

Here is a translation in English of the writing on the Ċippus:

But what does the writing on the Ċippi say?

The two Ċippi were offered to the god Melqart by two brothers called Abdosir and Osirshamar as thanksgiving – much in the same way in which today we would offer a prayer or something else to God or the saints when we get a grace.


PHOENICIANS WORD SEARCH

K M X G L I S S A T

A K E E X G U M S Q

R W O L R T H D H A

O P X L Q U W S I S

H M U U X A M L P H

P X V B M A R I C T

M X F L D Z S T W A

A E L P R U P R G R

P J C I P P U S A T

H T O L C Z Y O L M

AMPHORA ASHTART CIPPUS CLOTH MARSAXLOKK MELQART MUREX PURPLE SHIP TAS-SILG


Here is a picture of a Phoenician ship.

Label the parts which are described below using the letters in the first column.

A The bow – or the front end of the ship

B The stern – or the back end of the ship

C The hull – the main body of the ship

D The main mast

E The sail

F The rigging – or the ropes which held the mast to the ship

G The rudder – or the steering mechanism of the ship

H The waterline – the part of the ship where the water reached furthest up the hull


Help the Phoenician ship to reach its destination to collect its cargo of amphorae.

In time, the Phoenician city of Carthage in North Africa became very rich and powerful. It became so important that it set up its own empire and it took over many Phoenician colonies.

Malta became part of the Carthaginian empire, but we presume that life in Malta went on very much the same as it had done under the Phoenicians.

In time, Rome - another city started growing very powerful and wars started between the two powers – Carthage and Rome.

There were three wars in all – in history they are known as the PUNIC WARS.


One of the most famous historical characters from the Punic Wars was Hannibal. Hannibal is considered to be one of the most famous generals of all times. He attacked the Romans in Spain and then took his army, which included elephants across the Pyrenees mountains and the Alps to attack the Romans in Italy.

The Romans had a hard time to defeat Hannibal and they only managed to get him out of Italy with a clever trick.

The Romans sent a strong army to attack Carthage itself and Hannibal, together with his army was called back home to defend the city.

Hannibal was defeated by the Romans at the battle of Zama. For

many years Hannibal managed to escape the Roman soldiers who were sent to arrest him. Then one day, when escape had become impossible for him, he swallowed poison rather than let the Romans capture him alive.

During the third and final Punic War, the Romans defeated Carthage and the city was destroyed.

Malta was taken by the Romans during the Second Punic War. The Maltese surrendered the island voluntarily to the Romans in the year 218 B.C.

Malta became part of the Roman Empire.

Hannibal came from a military family. His father – Hamilcar Barca was a famous Carthaginian general too.

If you want to learn more about the Punic Wars, visit this website

http://rome.mrdonn.org/hannibal.html

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