Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1984 - 65

paigns at Timna, Hajr bin Hameid, and
Marib directed by Wendell Phillips,
whom LowellThomas called the "American Lawrence of Arabia" Marib is still
the most extensively revealed site in the
country.
In 1982, under the direction of James
A. Sauer, the American Foundation for
the Study of Man, along with the American Schools of Oriental Research, Harvard University and the University of
Pennsylvania, returned with a new investigation. Called the Wadi al-Jubah
Archaeological Project, focus has been
on site reconnaissance; directed by Jeffrey H. Blakely, the field team has now
begun limited soundings in the vicinity
of the ancient kingdoms of Sheba and
Qataban in southeast Yemen,a two-hour
drive south of Marib. Over a hundred
archaeological sites have been mapped
in the dry river bed and a major ancient
city, smaller villages, homesteads, dams,
fields, wells, and burial sites have been
isolated. The earliest radiocarbon date
is 1300 b.c.; the greatest number point
to mid-first millennium b.c. habitation.
In 1978, McGuire Gibson organized
the Yemen Survey on behalf of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.
Raymond Tindel led the field team to
locate sites and collect data in the mountainous agricultural area of YarimDhamar, midway between Sana'a and
Taiz. At about the center they examined
Zafar, capital of Himyar, the last great
pre-Islamic kingdom of Yemen (a.D.
250-600). (See "Zafar: Archaeology in
the Land of Frankincense and Myrrh,"
Archaeology, March/April 1984.)Artifacts showing Hellenistic, Roman,
Parthian, Sasanian, and local influences
are in a museum atop the mountain from
which Zafar once dominated the area. If
you want to see for yourself, remember
current digs are accessibleonly by means
of rugged four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Your Yemen adventure will begin at
Sana'a, which has flights arriving daily
from a number of European and Near
East cities. Start with the archaeological
finds at the National Museum, housed
in an Imam palace. You'll see treasures
from the early first millennium b.c.
- alabaster sculpture, bronze statues,
inscriptions in distinctive South Arabian script, and more.
Be sure to climb to the museum's roof
for a panorama of the city's carved
mosques and distinctively decorated
houses, many in continuous use for 400
years. Delicate "whitedesigns embellish
five-to nine-story stone buildings; their
arched windows hold openwork plaster
screens filled with colored stained glass.
The souk or marketplace (don't forget
to bargain!) will tempt you with exotic
wares straight out of the past. Yemeni
art still features symbols of the sun,
moon and Venus triad on which ancient
continued on page 76

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1984 65
September/October
Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1984
