MATSEC IM History cheat sheet

Periodisation: Maltese prehistory runs from the first Neolithic settlers (c. 5200 BC) to the Bronze Age; the historical period begins with Phoenician and Carthaginian contact (c. 8th century BC).

Neolithic sequence: Għar Dalam phase (impressed ware, earliest farming), Grey Skorba, Red Skorba, then the Żebbuġ phase; these mark the transition from cave occupation to open villages.

Temple Period (c. 3600–2500 BC): Ġgantija, Mnajdra, Ħaġar Qim and Tarxien temples; characterised by megalithic construction, coralline limestone, apsidal plans and spiral reliefs.

Hal Saflieni Hypogeum: three-level rock-cut necropolis near Paola, with red-ochre spiral paintings and the 'Sleeping Lady' figurine; the site indicates organised ritual and collective burial.

Tarxien Cemetery phase (c. 2500 BC) marks a cultural break: cremation burials in the ruins of the temples, new pottery and bronze objects, associated with incoming Bronze Age groups.

Bronze Age features: Borg in-Nadur and Baħrija pottery, dolmens, silo pits and the later cart ruts; the shift from megalithic temples to small defended settlements reflects social reorganisation.

Phoenician and Punic Malta: Melite as a trading post; Punic inscriptions, tophets and the sanctuary at Tas-Silġ; Maltese place-names such as Mdina (Melite) and Rabat derive from this stratum.

Roman Malta (218 BC onward): Malta allied with Rome during the Second Punic War; municipium status, the Domvs Romana mosaic at Rabat, and the tradition of St Paul's shipwreck (Acts 28) in AD 60.

Source rule: distinguish primary evidence (coins, inscriptions, stratigraphy) from secondary interpretation; a coin hoard dates a context, a temple alignment suggests but does not prove calendrical use.

Arab period (AD 870–1091): Aghlabid conquest, introduction of cotton, citrus and new irrigation; the Maltese language emerges from a Siculo-Arabic dialect; few standing monuments survive.

Norman rule from 1091 (Count Roger I) brought Malta back into Latin Christendom; the County of Malta was held by the de Nava family under Sicilian overlordship.

Order of St John arrives 1530 after Rhodes; granted Malta, Gozo and Tripoli by Charles V; the Order governed until 1798, with the Grand Master as sovereign.

Great Siege of 1565: Ottoman forces under Dragut and Piali Pasha failed against Grand Master Jean de la Valette; the outcome led to the founding of Valletta (1566) and Fort St Elmo's symbolic role.

Valletta: planned grid city by Francesco Laparelli on the Sciberras peninsula; bastioned fortifications, auberges, St John's Co-Cathedral with Caravaggio's 'Beheading of St John' (1608).

Hospitaller administration: langues (national divisions), the Sacra Infermeria hospital, the Inquisitor's Palace at Birgu, and the Wignacourt, Floriana and Cottonera fortification lines.

1798 French occupation under Napoleon ended the Order's rule; the Maltese revolt (1798–1800) and blockade led to British protection; Treaty of Paris (1814) confirmed British sovereignty.

British colonial period: 1813 Bathurst Constitution, 1835 first elected council, 1921 self-government, 1933 constitution suspended, 1947 restored; Malta became independent on 21 September 1964 and a republic on 13 December 1974.

Source rule: constitutional dates and sieges are high-frequency exam targets; link political change (self-government, independence, republic) to the specific statute or event that produced it.