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The ancient kingdom of Saba ruled over the
lands of southern Arabia, centered in modern
day Yemen. Saba is perhaps better known as
Sheba, the Hebrew word for the kingdom, whose
famous Queen was recounted as having visited
Solomon in the pages of the Old Testament.
Biblical accounts speak of the wealth of this
ancient civilization of traders and merchants, and
modern archaeological excavations confirm these
reports. Ruins of fortresses and walled towns are
evident and remnants of their extensive irrigation
system that turned the desert into a paradise
still cover the land. Although gold and silver
deposits were present, the chief source of their
vast wealth was derived from their veritable
monopoly of two of the most coveted materials
in ancient times: frankincense and myrrh,
resinous gums obtained from certain trees that
only grow in Southern Arabia and were literally
worth their weight in gold. There was not a
temple or wealthy house in the ancient world,
from Babylon to Rome, where one would not
smell the fragrant scents of these incenses. In
addition, a trade route that connected India to
Egypt passing through the capital of Marib was
another major source of wealth. In the 1st
Century A.D., the Ptolemaic Greeks discovered a
sea route from India directly to the port of
Alexandria, eliminating Saba from her lucrative
trade and ushering in the decline of Sabean
prosperity.
Portrait of a bearded man, featuring long incised
slightly arched eyebrows, elongated eyes,
straight vertical nose and small serrated lips, the
beard contouring the face ear to ear, the ears,
small and perfectly alligned shaped as a semi-
circle. The beard is similar to the piece TC 2043
from the Heid bin-Aqil cemetery of Qatabanian
Timna. On the chest surface below the beard
runs a brief five-letter inscription, presumably a
personal name, that (despite the poor lettering)
could be translated as Sha'wum. As a name, this
is attested once in Safaitic, North-Arabian,
though South-Arabian are yet to be found.
The style of some of the letters would place its
dating to the 4th-3rd centuries BC.
For a comparable example see R.L.Cleveland, An
Ancient South Arabian Necropolis, 1965:
pl.21.
For a discussion on the name cf., Harding G.L.,
Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian
Names and Inscriptions, Toronto, 1971: p.337.
[Translation and attribution kindly provided by
Prof. Kenneth A. Kitchen, University of Liverpool]
- (LO.669)
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