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Book a VisitExplore the Maltese Islands
Explore the history of Malta and Gozo across thousands of years — from the earliest known human presence in the islands to the independent Maltese state of today.
A Long Mediterranean History
Malta's past cannot be reduced to a succession of conquerors. Archaeology, texts, architecture, objects, landscapes, language, and memory reveal communities continually adapting to their position in the central Mediterranean.
Select a period below to explore its archaeology, material culture, society, economy, religion, political history, and changing interpretations in greater depth.
Explore by Period
01
From Mesolithic seafarers and the first farming communities to monumental prehistoric complexes, collective burial traditions, ceramics, exchange networks, and Bronze Age transformation.
Explore Prehistoric Malta02
Maritime communities connected Malta with the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean, reshaping settlement, religion, trade, burial, language, and material culture.
Explore Punic Malta03
Roman political rule connected Malta with an imperial Mediterranean while older Punic traditions continued to shape urban life, agriculture, religion, burial, and identity.
Explore Roman Malta04
Late Antique communities continued within the eastern Roman world as Christianity, Mediterranean trade, settlement, and political authority changed across the islands.
Explore Byzantine Malta05
Aghlabid and Fatimid rule transformed Malta's political and cultural setting, leaving enduring effects on settlement, population, agriculture, trade, material culture, language, and the islands' place within the Mediterranean.
Explore Islamic Malta06
Malta passed through changing Norman, Hohenstaufen, Angevin, Aragonese, and Sicilian political frameworks while local communities negotiated religious, linguistic, economic, and social change.
Explore Medieval Malta07
The occupation of the Order transformed Malta's fortifications, cities, economy, institutions, art, architecture, connections with Europe, and relationships throughout the Mediterranean.
Explore Hospitaller Malta08
A brief but consequential French occupation introduced institutional reforms while provoking resistance and contributing directly to another major political transition.
Explore French Malta09
British occupation reshaped Malta as an imperial military and maritime centre while political movements, migration, war, education, language, and constitutional change transformed Maltese society.
Explore British Malta10
Independence opened a new chapter shaped by republican government, economic and social transformation, European integration, migration, and an increasingly global Maltese diaspora.
Explore Modern MaltaBeyond the Human Timeline
Natural HistoryMalta's geological formation, changing sea levels, fossil record, endemic species, landscapes, climate, and ecology belong to a much longer history than the human timeline
Explore the natural processes and environments that shaped the Maltese archipelago and the conditions within which human history later unfolded.
Explore Malta's Natural HistoryAbout These Pages
These pages bring together archaeological, historical, scientific, and material evidence to provide accessible introductions to the history of the islands. Chronologies, terminology, and historical interpretations may change as new evidence and research emerge.