Prioletta Alessia. Inscriptions from the Southern Highlands of Yemen: The epigraphic collections of the museums of Baynūn and Dhamār

L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2013. — 407 p. — (Arabia Antica — Archaeological and Philological Series 8).Virtually every city and often even the smallest villages of Yemen have museums where hundreds of antiquities - inscriptions and artefacts - are housed, collections that bear witness to the culture that flourished in southern Arabia between the end of the 2nd millennium BC and the 6th century AD. This volume presents the epigraphic collections of three museums of the Dhamr governorate, a region situated in the highlands of Yemen, south of the capital Sana. The edition of each inscription, provided with a translation and a philological and historical commentary, is preceded by an introduction concentrating on the documents of local provenance, objects comprising the largest part of these collections. Through an analysis of new data and a review of past studies, the author examines the populations that inhabited this region, their social organization, the gods and religious practices, and their language through a diachronic perspective that also includes comparative considerations within the Ancient South Arabian civilization. For the first time, a culture of the southern highlands of Yemen is disclosed in all its complexity and importance, revealing a history that is much more ancient and long-lasting than previously imagined.