392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
Despite the paucity of information and the general lack of interest 
in this most important field, linking as it does the civilizations of two 
ancient worlds, the trade of the forger flourishes. The rare visitor to 
Sana‘a is besieged by dealers in statuettes and inscribed stones, some 
blatantly poor and new, others clever and difficult to detect. Silver 
coins of the Sabaeans, however, are abundant, and a drug on the 
numismatic market, 
What do these objects so far found tell us? Their surface message 
is clear. The kingdoms of southern Arabia, like that of the Nabatae- 
ans farther north, were in contact with the entire ancient world, from 
Rome to India and perhaps beyond. Objects of Roman, Greek, 
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indian manufacture abound. Scarabs, 
amulets, bronze statues in the Roman manner, dragon-feet and grape- 
bunch ornamentation in the Syrian and Byzantine manner, and Gre- 
cian columns all witness the especial linkage of this region with the 
Mediterranean. The names of gods monotonously repeated, the abun- 
dance of seated votive idols and ex votos, from phalli to oxen, indicate 
a devotion to religion and a belief in divine cures. Animal figurines 
show humpless cattle of the long-horned variety, like those of Hotten- 
tot and Galla, dromedaries, horses, ibexes, and gazelles. 
Bronze is the common metal, iron rare; gold and silver are not scarce. 
Microlithic flakes of ornamental greenish stone and of obsidian were 
apparently used as cutting tools and as arrowheads, along with metal. 
Palettes indicate the great use of mineral cosmetics, as in predynastic 
Egypt. Statuettes and bas-reliefs show the skirt or breechclout to be 
the common costume. The sculptural level in purely native art is 
not high enough to give us an accurate idea of the racial types 
present, except that the people were undoubtedly white, had prominent 
noses, and that the men wore beards. There is no reason to suppose 
that they were any different racially from the Mediterranean Yemeni 
highlanders of today. 
Without question a careful study of authentic South Arabian archeo- 
logical specimens, even those removed from their contexts, as all 
those available are, could do much to solve the problem of the contacts 
and influences of this civilization. But such a study is yet to be made. 
From the inscriptions, and from classical and Arabic documents, we 
may build a second picture—that of the ethnography of these king- 
doms; their boundaries in time and space, their social structures, their 
religious practices, and their economic life. With the aid of the prodi- 
gious scholarship of Nielsen and his associates, we will proceed to 
discuss these in brief. 
It cannot yet be determined with any accuracy when the South 
Arabian kingdoms were first established. It is known, however, that 
Ma‘an was probably the oldest, with Kataban perhaps nearly as old, 
