Ancient Yemen

The Queen of Sheba, the martyrs of Najran and the “Year of the Elephant” at Mecca are striking episodes in the outside world’s recollection of Yemenite history. Its own internal memory is concentrated in thousands of inscriptions that have become one of the characteristics of Ancient Yemenite civilization. The Yemenites wrote much and often. Travellers and military commanders recorded their presence on rocks by the wayside. They requested the aid of the gods, commemorated ritual hunts and boasted of victories. All the monumental edifices were literally covered with inscriptions giving the names of the builders and the organizers of the construction of temples, dams and fortress walls. The best offerings to a deity were inscriptions and bronze sculptures. Most of the sculptures perished, but the inscriptions mentioning them remained. People asked the gods for help and gave thanks for it. The names of the gods were carved on rocks, building blocks and amulets. They were the protectors of people. One of the most beloved protector-talismans was the god Wadd, who was known across the whole of Arabia and is mentioned in the Quran as one of the deities of kinsfolk of Noah (Nuh).

The South Arabian writing system is in itself an important cultural phenomenon and artistic occurrence. It represents (along with Ethiopian) a distinctive variant of the Semitic script. Its early stages are striking for their geometric elegance and refined minimalism. The middle-period versions are beautiful and keen on details. Late versions are intricate and inclined to an excessive decorativeness. All in all, this rich history of the evolution of taste and informational aesthetics forms a worthy parallel to the history of mediaeval Arabic calligraphy.

Inscriptions and sculptures adorned the burial sites of ancient Yemenites.  Depictions also underwent a development from minimalism to stylized realism, while always retaining an element of conventionality. Inscriptions and architectural features were embellished with depictions of sacred animals, ibex and rams.  It is only natural that a land of incense was full of censers, large and small, bearing the symbols and names of deities. Quite often incense-burners were made in the form of towers and buildings. The depiction of multi-storey buildings on temple reliefs is evidence that the ancient Yemenites admired their own architecture no less than we do now. The columns of Yemenite temples that remained standing amid the sands even when the temples themselves and the cities had gone, served as one of the sources of the Quranic image of a magical city – “Iram of the Pillars”.

The small collection of ancient Yemenite inscriptions in the stocks of the State Hermitage reflects in an astonishing manner the main elements in the repertoire of Sabaean epigraphy. It includes a dedicatory inscription connected with the capital Saba and the chief temple of the god Almaqah; an elegant tombstone and a rather crude epitaphic inscription containing a rare mention of its author’s originating from the famous Najran; and, finally, a talismanic inscription connected with the common Arabian god Wadd, who is mentioned in the Quran.