YEARS  AGO
Until radiocarbon dating in the 1970's revealed their true age, many people in Malta thought the temples were left by the Romans.

Many of the temples have never been completely buried.  Abandoned for some reason at about 2,400 BC, the temples seem to have stood alone and silent for centuries.  The roofing fell in; weeds grew between the stones.   Several are known to have been reused by later Bronze Age and Phoenician people.  Over time, other sites have been  dismantled and built over. 

Through a long and complicated history of foreign occupation and resettlement of Malta and Gozo, debris continued to collect in the surviving temples until 1827 when Ggantija became the first to be cleared.   Documented excavation did not begin until the 1920's when the Tarxien complex was exposed under a farmer's field. 

Traditionally, the temples were thought to be something left behind by the Romans during their stay on the islands.   It was not until the 1970's that the real age of the remains became known via radiocarbon and tree ring calibration dating techniques.