542 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



During the course of the survey, Jamme was privileged to make 

 several major epigraphic excursions to j)laces outside the reconnais- 

 sance area. Near the town of al-Wastah, which is located about 20 

 kilometers northeast of Tarim, a small collection of graffiti was found 

 high on a cliff just below the plateau. This group consists of 6 South 

 Arabic and 18 Thamudic graffiti. This is the southernmost find of 

 Thamudic graffiti which are most commonly found in northwestern 

 Arabia. 



On the occasion of the ammal pilgrimage to Nabi Allah Hud, Jamme 

 visited the small village of Sana, which is located about 45 kilometers 

 southeast of al-Wastah. About 2.5 kilometers northwest of Sana are 

 the ruins of a pre-Islamic temple which was dedicated to Sin, the lunar 

 god of ancient Hadhramaut. At this site photographs were made of 

 27 fragmentary South Arabic inscriptions. 



In the vicinity of al-'Abr, a Protectorate military post located about 

 150 kilometers west-northwest of Shibam, about 300 photographs of 

 graffiti and rock inscriptions were made. Most of these are located 

 about 11 miles north of the military post. The initial study of these 

 photographs shows that the general characteristics of the texts are 

 similar to those of texts from Wadi Hadhramaut, but that wasm or 

 tribal signs are more numerous and diverse. Several forms of letters 

 used in these inscriptions are also important for the study of South 

 Arabic paleography. 



About 100 kilometers southwest of al-'Abr are three large boulders 

 covered with inscriptions at a place known as al-'Uqlali. Jamme spent 

 6 hours studying 86 texts on the main boulder and 3 texts on each of 

 2 other boulders. These texts mention several consecutive Hadhrami 

 kings as well as a Sabean provincial king who ruled toward the end 

 of the third century A.D. Many of these texts were copied in 1936 

 by the well-known Arabian explorer, H. St. J. B. Philby. It is now 

 clear that his copies of these inscriptions require major additions and 

 corrections, and it will now be possible to correct these errors. 

 Twenty-eight of these inscriptions were copied for the first time 

 (Jamme, 1963a). 



Thus the epigraphic work of this expedition is of considerable im- 

 portance to the study of language, literature, and culture history of 

 South Arabia. The texts discovered will make a valuable contribution 

 to the South Arabian onomasticon, and especially to the study of pale- 

 ography ; the latter, in turn, sheds light on the origin and evolution of 

 the South Arabian alphabet. It is probable that important data on 

 migrations and trade will be forthcoming once the personal names 

 have been studied (Jamme, 1963a) . 



