World Enough and Time

One of the news articles on my Yahoo! page today was this one, about the discovery of a 4,000 year old temple.

My first reaction was excitement. I love old temples: I was just looking on Sunday at photos of the wonderful old temples on Malta, at Hagar Qim and Tarxien.¹

My second reaction was disappointment. The temple is in Peru.

Now, why should that be disappointing? Why am I so much more fascinated by Old World archeology than New? I'd say it was cultural familiarity, but the folks who built the temple at Hagar Qim are just as mysterious and unknown as the ones who built anything in Peru four thousand years ago. It isn't even a matter of familiarity, that I've been to Malta but not Peru. Or that I know less about it. After all, before I went to Malta, I didn't know anything much about it, either, except what I'd read in Dunnett. Maybe that's it. I don't have the same fictional/cultural links to Peru.²

I might be excited if someone found a big 4,000 year old temple foundation in Canada, just because it would so absurbly unexpected. I am rather impressed by the site at L'Anse aux Meadows, but that's European - very like sites I've seen in Orkney and other bits of northern Europe. And keep in mind that I've never actually been to L'Anse aux Meadows, though I'd love to see it. Black flies and all. (I assume there are black flies. It goes with the territory, right? Even with global warming?)

I should upload more of my photos of the Maltese sites. All I seem to have online is one photo I took of Hagar Qim, with the sea behind. I thought it was the nicest shot, but I took many, many pictures.

When I was in Orkney, on the Isle of Eday, I was in a house that the tour guide said he could guarantee was the oldest building we'd ever been in - about 5,000 years old. When I stood in the temple at Hagar Qim, I wondered: Is this as old? Older? There's no answer to that, but I love being there, and being able to ask.

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¹ I hope I spelled that right. I don't think I did. Even making allowances for the fact that I can't type all the Maltese letters and diacritics. Okay, now I've got myself curious, I have to look it up... yay! got it right! I wasn't too sure about L'Anse aux Meadows, either.

² Unless you count Paddington Bear. I wouldn't.