Following the Żebbuġ phase (4100-3800 BCE), the Mġarr phase (3800-3600 BCE) was a short transitional period in Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

's prehistory. It is characterized by pottery consisting of mainly curved lines. Examples have been extensively excavated at the Ta' Ħaġrat Temples. The Mġarr phase evolved into the Ġgantija phase

Ggantija phase

The Ġgantija phase owes its name to the Ġgantija Temples in Xagħra, Gozo. The Ġgantija phase is directly preceded by the Mġarr phase , and is characterized by a change in the way the prehistoric inhabitants of Malta lived...

 (3600-3200 BCE).

Overview

Artifacts are typically coated in red ochre and it has been suggested that their use may have been funereal; Mġarr pottery is similar to the objects found in Ta' Trapna neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 tomb

Tomb

A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...

s. The discoveries attracted considerable attention in academic literature, including the internationally received study of Elizabeth de Manneville.