Not sure if this has been posted before, it was a good read.
Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to Mahad Jebiy, Senior President Advisor of the Region of Puntland, and Mohammed Yaasin, a Somali resident in the United Kingdom, for providing us with the photographs of these texts in order to publish them as soon as possible and prevent their illegal export. We also wish to thank Dr Jorge De Torres Rodriguez (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain) and Dr A González-Ruibal for providing many insights into the Shalʿaw inscription and its archaeological context.
Abstract
In 2019, the illegal excavation of an ancient sanctuary on the Somali coast yielded monumental Sabaic inscriptions from approximately the 8th-7th centuries BCE. The inscriptions, similar in content and script, have shed light on their authors’ origin (Sabaeans presumably from Maʾrib in Yemen), on the location’s cultic nature, and more broadly on Sabaean endeavours to establish an ambitious trade network in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE for the supply of aromatic resins from across the Horn of Africa, in order to convey them to the Near East and Mesopotamia. These inscriptions also highlight mastery of navigation techniques in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as early as the period of the Sabaean mukarribs.
Introduction
As from the spring of 2019, photographs of illegally excavated remains and inscriptions on the Somali coast began circulating on the Web. Some were directly emailed to Khaldūn H. Nuʿmān and Christian J. Robin, with the request to intercede with local authorities. Until now, seven Sabaic inscriptions and an incense-burning altar have been brought to our attention. The location of this looted items was undisclosed. We were only told that the discovery was made in the autonomous state of Puntland, part of the Federal Republic of Somalia. One of our sources indicated Cape Guardafui, the second the town of Qandala on the northern coast of Puntland. By comparing the landscape in the background of the photographs with the digital elevation model provided by Google Earth, we were able, however, to pinpoint an approximate location on the eastern coast of Somalia, ca. 50 km SSW of Cape Guardafui, 20 km north of Bargal and 110 km north of Xaafuun6 (also named Ras Hafun). In the site’s background, the overhanging Ras Shannaqiif and the tabular relief of Mount Xambi are easily recognizable (Fig. 1). If these inferences are correct, the looted site would be located near the Abdexan well (Fig. 2). None of the archaeological surveys carried out along the eastern coast of Somalia7 have ever ventured in this area. Yet it is precisely in the Abdexan area that the French explorer Georges Révoil reported in 1880 the presence of an ancient temple, whose outlines he sketched (Fig. 3).8 Two facts suggest that this temple and the recently looted site are one and the same. Firstly, the photographs show the first course of a wall built in marginally drafted, pecked masonry, typical of South Arabian monumental constructions. 9 The nature and function of the monument is not recognizable from the photographic documentation at our disposal, but the content of the inscriptions indicates that it was most likely either a simple sacred enclosure, or a temple. Secondly, ancient built remains are exceptional on the Somali coast and inland. So far, evidence of pre-Islamic occupation is limited to rock art, megaliths, platforms and drystone cairns.10 Neither the coastal sites of Heïs (the alleged ancient port of Mundu),11 nor Olog and Damo (the ancient Aromata Emporion), 12 nor even the site of Hafun-Main (the ancient port of Opone), have yielded any significant structures apart from the burials. A built temple is therefore an exceptional structure, and the probability
A Sabaean trading venture As has been said, the suggested date for the drafting of the inscriptions and therefore the foundation of this site south of Cape Guardafui is uncertain. In any event, it happened after the Sabaeans began to settle in the Eritrean hinterland and on the Ethiopian Tigray plateau. 53 In the late 8th century BCE, the Sabaeans, moving from inner Yemen, came into contact with the people of the Tihāma coastal plain54 and seized political control of the Arabian coastline (Fig. 2). 55 Both political control and navigational experience on the Arabian and African coastal seas played the part of a catalyst for ambitious maritime exploration, which is illustrated by a fleet of Sabaʾ sailing along the northern coast of Somalia on behalf of the Sabaean ruler Yathaʿʾamar Watar. There is little doubt that the primary goal of the Sabaean presence on the Somali coast was the supply of aromatic resins. The putative location of the Somalian site, near Abdexan, has been described as receiving very little rainfall but endowed with numerous springs and incense trees.56 All ancient geographers praised the abundance and quality of its aromatics. 57 Like the routes described a few centuries later by the Periplus Maris Erythraei, navigation was likely along the coast, from the Bāb al-Mandab to the Gulf of Tadjura and then along the northern coast of present-day Somaliland to Cape Guardafui, before veering south to the Bargal area, where the shrine is located. An isolated item may testify to this coastal navigation by Sabaeans. A short South Arabian inscription of four characters is preserved not far from the coastal town of Shuula (or Shalʿaw),58 25 km southwest of Heïs, the ancient Mundu of the Periplus (Fig. 2). The
shs.hal.science
Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to Mahad Jebiy, Senior President Advisor of the Region of Puntland, and Mohammed Yaasin, a Somali resident in the United Kingdom, for providing us with the photographs of these texts in order to publish them as soon as possible and prevent their illegal export. We also wish to thank Dr Jorge De Torres Rodriguez (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain) and Dr A González-Ruibal for providing many insights into the Shalʿaw inscription and its archaeological context.
Abstract
In 2019, the illegal excavation of an ancient sanctuary on the Somali coast yielded monumental Sabaic inscriptions from approximately the 8th-7th centuries BCE. The inscriptions, similar in content and script, have shed light on their authors’ origin (Sabaeans presumably from Maʾrib in Yemen), on the location’s cultic nature, and more broadly on Sabaean endeavours to establish an ambitious trade network in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE for the supply of aromatic resins from across the Horn of Africa, in order to convey them to the Near East and Mesopotamia. These inscriptions also highlight mastery of navigation techniques in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as early as the period of the Sabaean mukarribs.
Introduction
As from the spring of 2019, photographs of illegally excavated remains and inscriptions on the Somali coast began circulating on the Web. Some were directly emailed to Khaldūn H. Nuʿmān and Christian J. Robin, with the request to intercede with local authorities. Until now, seven Sabaic inscriptions and an incense-burning altar have been brought to our attention. The location of this looted items was undisclosed. We were only told that the discovery was made in the autonomous state of Puntland, part of the Federal Republic of Somalia. One of our sources indicated Cape Guardafui, the second the town of Qandala on the northern coast of Puntland. By comparing the landscape in the background of the photographs with the digital elevation model provided by Google Earth, we were able, however, to pinpoint an approximate location on the eastern coast of Somalia, ca. 50 km SSW of Cape Guardafui, 20 km north of Bargal and 110 km north of Xaafuun6 (also named Ras Hafun). In the site’s background, the overhanging Ras Shannaqiif and the tabular relief of Mount Xambi are easily recognizable (Fig. 1). If these inferences are correct, the looted site would be located near the Abdexan well (Fig. 2). None of the archaeological surveys carried out along the eastern coast of Somalia7 have ever ventured in this area. Yet it is precisely in the Abdexan area that the French explorer Georges Révoil reported in 1880 the presence of an ancient temple, whose outlines he sketched (Fig. 3).8 Two facts suggest that this temple and the recently looted site are one and the same. Firstly, the photographs show the first course of a wall built in marginally drafted, pecked masonry, typical of South Arabian monumental constructions. 9 The nature and function of the monument is not recognizable from the photographic documentation at our disposal, but the content of the inscriptions indicates that it was most likely either a simple sacred enclosure, or a temple. Secondly, ancient built remains are exceptional on the Somali coast and inland. So far, evidence of pre-Islamic occupation is limited to rock art, megaliths, platforms and drystone cairns.10 Neither the coastal sites of Heïs (the alleged ancient port of Mundu),11 nor Olog and Damo (the ancient Aromata Emporion), 12 nor even the site of Hafun-Main (the ancient port of Opone), have yielded any significant structures apart from the burials. A built temple is therefore an exceptional structure, and the probability
A Sabaean trading venture As has been said, the suggested date for the drafting of the inscriptions and therefore the foundation of this site south of Cape Guardafui is uncertain. In any event, it happened after the Sabaeans began to settle in the Eritrean hinterland and on the Ethiopian Tigray plateau. 53 In the late 8th century BCE, the Sabaeans, moving from inner Yemen, came into contact with the people of the Tihāma coastal plain54 and seized political control of the Arabian coastline (Fig. 2). 55 Both political control and navigational experience on the Arabian and African coastal seas played the part of a catalyst for ambitious maritime exploration, which is illustrated by a fleet of Sabaʾ sailing along the northern coast of Somalia on behalf of the Sabaean ruler Yathaʿʾamar Watar. There is little doubt that the primary goal of the Sabaean presence on the Somali coast was the supply of aromatic resins. The putative location of the Somalian site, near Abdexan, has been described as receiving very little rainfall but endowed with numerous springs and incense trees.56 All ancient geographers praised the abundance and quality of its aromatics. 57 Like the routes described a few centuries later by the Periplus Maris Erythraei, navigation was likely along the coast, from the Bāb al-Mandab to the Gulf of Tadjura and then along the northern coast of present-day Somaliland to Cape Guardafui, before veering south to the Bargal area, where the shrine is located. An isolated item may testify to this coastal navigation by Sabaeans. A short South Arabian inscription of four characters is preserved not far from the coastal town of Shuula (or Shalʿaw),58 25 km southwest of Heïs, the ancient Mundu of the Periplus (Fig. 2). The
Sabaeans on the Somali coast
In 2019, the illegal excavation of an ancient sanctuary on the Somali coast yielded monumental Sabaic inscriptions from approximately the eighth–seventh centuries BCE. The inscriptions, similar in content and script, have shed light on their authors’ origin (Sabaeans presumably from Maʾrib in...
shs.hal.science
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or did they hog the coast?
