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Friday, September 30, 2005

SOME SOUTH ARABIAN INSCRIPTIONS are being restored in Yemen:
Ancient Inscriptions Receive Expert Attention
By [Yemen] Observer Staff
Sep 29, 2005 - Vol.VIII Issue 39

SANA’A - The American Embassy is funding a project that will help restore sticks that bear engravings dating back to the time of the Kingdom of Sheba.

The project is being carried out by the American Institute for Yemeni Studies.

“The sticks are wood cylinders, 10-30cm long and 2-5cm in diameter, made from palm stalks or branches of ‘ilb trees. The texts engraved on the sticks are 1-15 lines long, written in a cursive form of musnad called zabur-script.

The inscriptions are letters, accounts, contracts, notes of debts, receipts, lists of personal names and names of tribes, school exercises, etc -- i.e. they contain information about daily life in the South Arabian civilization, of a kind not found in the public inscriptions of kings, temples, etc...” said Christopher Edens, the Director of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies.

[...]

Sheba is mentioned occasionally in the Bible, most notably with reference to the legendary Queen of Sheba.

(Via Archaeologica News.)

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