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A Ceiling Painting in the Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum as Acoustically-Related Imagery: A Preliminary Note

Abstract This preliminary paper examines the ceiling painting in the “Oracle Room” in the Neolithic Hal-Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta. Visual evidence is found of associations between the painted imagery and a wall niche possessing exceptional acoustic qualities, considered by some to have functioned as a “speaking tube” for oracular pronouncements. Varying interpretations of the nature of the niche and of the painting are sampled before the proposition is made that the painted imagery could have acted as acoustical notation if the niche did have intentional acoustic properties and purpose.