ARCHEOLOGY IN SOUTH ARABIA — VAN BEEK, COLE, AND JAMME 541 



stone foundations and a few artifacts. Except in the larger towns 

 and cities, little or no repair work is done to houses that begin to 

 disintegrate ; instead, houses are abandoned, and the inhabitants build 

 an entirely new town nearby. Because of this practice, high mounds 

 are not being formed now, and if this tradition began in antiquity it 

 would explain the lack of depth in most pre-Islamic sites. Artifacts 

 from early Islamic structures include plain buff pottery, glass, and 

 occasional sherds of imported ceramics, such as celadon. In recent 

 Islamic sites, red slip pottery and painted pottery are common ; glass, 

 wooden, and metal artifacts, and imported European and Asian por- 

 celain also appear; many similar objects are still available in local 

 shops and represent a continuum between the recent past and the 



present. 



EPIGRAPHY 



About 1,300 South Arabic graffiti and rock inscriptions were copied 

 in the main wadi and tributaries between Tarim and Qarn Qaimah 

 during the 3i/^ months of fieldwork. These graffiti and inscriptions 

 are either engraved or pecked, in all probability with hammerstones or 

 similar tools. They are chiefly f omid on boulders which broke away 

 from the limestone cliffs and tmnbled to their present locations on the 

 talus or silt. A few inscriptions are preserved on the vertical cliff 

 surfaces, and originally there may have been many more m such posi- 

 tions which weathered away. The decipherment of most of the texts 

 is unusually difficult because of the rough surface of the boulders, and 

 the light incision and pecking of letters on the limestone. These dif- 

 ficulties are compounded by the fact that many graffiti and inscriptions 

 are located in chamberlike places where the light is exceptionally poor. 



These texts contain only personal names, but a great number of 

 them are new and represent an important addition to the corpus of 

 South Arabian names. Karely are they accompanied by names in- 

 dicating filiation or the clan or family to which the person belonged, as 

 is more commonly found in the western part of southern Arabia. Sev- 

 eral very important forms of letters were also found which shed new 

 light on Semitic paleography. For example, some forms of ''alif are 

 practically identical to some found in Protosinaitic and early Phoeni- 

 cian (Canaanite) inscriptions. Wasm or tribal sig-ns also appear in 

 the Hadhramaut inscriptions. 



While searching for graffiti and inscriptions, Jamme also sought to 

 obtain information on the toponymy of the area. In order to achieve 

 maximum accuracy in the spelling of local geographic names, literate 

 local guides were hired to write place names in Arabic in our note- 

 books; whenever possible, their spellings were checked by other native 

 informants. Tliis material was turned over to the U.S. Army Map 

 Service and to the Directorate of Military Survey in England for their 

 use in improving the maps of this region. 



