Why does the Ħaġar Qim seem to have drilled holes / pitted dots on its stoneworks?
score:12
Such stippling is a common feature at prehistoric Maltese sites. They are often considered a primitive decorative pattern - somewhat of a forerunner of a modern art form.
It is the best preserved of all the Maltese temples ... The two left-hand lobed chambers are linked by a trilith niche of stones decorated by stippling; the inner of these two chambers is subdivided and in it stands two betyls, or pillar altars.
- Service, Alastair and Bradbery, Jean. Megaliths and Their Mysteries: A Guide to the Standing Stones of Europe. MacMillan Publishing Co.: New York. 1979
And:
The device of stippling the background with an infinitude of tiny hammer-pick holes exquisitely sets off the boldly rounded curves that seem to have been a happy obsession with these artist-masons.
- Hogg, Garry. Malta: Blue-water Island. AS Barnes, 1968.
However there is no real way to be sure about their purpose. Some suggests, for instance, that a row of the dots counted the number of days between equinoxes.
Upvote:0
It is a decorative pattern. Artists call this kind of stippled background pattern a ground. In Japan it is known as nanako, which means fish eggs. The purpose is to set off and accentuate the primary design.
More post
- 📝 What happened to the Wehrmacht after the German surrender?
- 📝 What is the earliest recorded reference to a bubble floating in the air?
- 📝 Did the 1962 comedy album about JFK impact the presidency or US prestige abroad?
- 📝 Does anyone know if buccaneer snap and zippered pants are from the military?
- 📝 Where can I find digitised versions of Japanese war documents in original Japanese?
- 📝 Was the Volga really Russia's last line of defense before the Urals?
- 📝 Why was Japanese Unit 731 immune from War Crime trials?
- 📝 What is this 19th century British army uniform?
- 📝 What is the current consensus on the origins of the Brahmi script?
- 📝 When were the Germans aware of British airborne radar during WWII?
- 📝 Classical battle sizes vs medieval battle sizes
- 📝 What is "the dead credit"?
- 📝 Why did the start of the Roman consular year move?
- 📝 What were the plans for governance of the Jerusalem International Zone?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me anything about the markings on these shell casings?
- 📝 What was the reason that Poland wanted a part of Germany north of Stettin/Szczecin and west of the Oder?
- 📝 How did Muslim traders raise investments given Islam's prohibition of usury?
- 📝 Who's this Egyptian woman?
- 📝 Light cavalry in medieval western Europe?
- 📝 Prevalence of Torture
- 📝 Are any civil wars -- other than the American Civil War -- commonly reenacted?
- 📝 Who is the historical figure in McCarthy's speech, "When a great democracy is destroyed..."?
- 📝 Which king was this?
- 📝 Why bother attacking castles at all? Why not go around?
- 📝 Why didn't the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia use the military to suppress the protests during the Velvet Revolution?
- 📝 What role did Jews play in the Punic Wars?
- 📝 What happened to those ethnic Greeks who converted to Islam during the Ottoman empire?
- 📝 What gift did Saladin send to Richard when he was ill?
- 📝 Can someone identify this uniform?
- 📝 Einstein's World War IV quote?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why does the Ħaġar Qim seem to have drilled holes / pitted dots on its stoneworks?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 Who discovered first that the Moon does not have its own light?
- 📝 Why does the amount of days in an year on average of the Gregorian calendar only have 4 decimal places (365.2425)?
- 📝 Why does the US House of Representatives have a ceremonial mace, but the Senate does not?
- 📝 Why does the Navy’s army need its own air force (U.S. Marine Corps)?
- 📝 Does Japan have the constitutional and legal right to have its own army or navy?
- 📝 Why would the heads of the Manhattan Project have been imprisoned in the event of its failure?
- 📝 Why does Texas have the right to split?
- 📝 Why does Brazil have many more Italian descendants than the U.S. or Argentina when the latter two received more Italian immigrants?
- 📝 Why does the UK buy some of its major military hardware from the USA while France is self-reliant?
- 📝 Why does the USA only have two political parties?
- 📝 Why does the US have many top-level web domains?
- 📝 Why does the Canadian Air Force name its ranks like its Army, whilst the Australian and New Zealand Air Forces use the Royal Air Force's?
- 📝 Why does the M61 Vulcan have a flash suppressor?
- 📝 Why does the Philippines have little fossil deposits?
- 📝 Why did China not seem to have cared about the Nanking Massacre?
- 📝 Why does the US have states?
- 📝 Why does only Iran have a Governor of the Jurisprudence?
- 📝 Why does the United States keep using "old" date representations and imperial system, while being in the minority?
- 📝 Why didn't Hitler have more submarines in the English channel?
- 📝 Why does Japan use the same type of AC power outlet as the US?
- 📝 Why does German money from the 1940s not bear Nazi symbols?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
- 📝 Why does this London Underground poster from 1924 have a Star of David atop a Christmas tree?
- 📝 Why did Poland keep Warsaw as its capital instead of returning it to Krakow in the 20th century?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 Why does the King of Spain still claim defunct titles like the King of Hungary?
- 📝 Why did the Republic of China retract its simplified Chinese characters?