Archaeological Work in Arabia Now Possible

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Opportunities for archaeological investigation appear to be opening up in the Arabian peninsula for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, according to reports from Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Recently returned from a four-month visit to Yemen, Father Albert Jamme of Catholic University visited 70 sites, copied over 300 formal South Arabian inscriptions and over 900 graffiti. Father Jamme is generally recognized as the world’s leading South Arabian epigrapher.

Father Jamme had not previously visited Yemen since 1952 when he spent a month in a Yemen jail for refusing to surrender his latex squeezes of some South Arabian inscriptions. Several months after he was released, the entire archaeological expedition had to flee the country secretly, barely escaping with their lives. The squeezes for which Father Jamme went to jail had to be left behind. A swashbuckling account of this adventure may be found in a book entitled Qataban and Sheba (1955) by the romantic American leader of the expedition, Wendell Phillips.

Father Jamme saw his 1952 squeezes on his recent visit, but the Yemen government claims to own them.

Since the 1962 revolution, however, the Yemen government’s attitude toward archaeological scholarship has changed, according to Father Jamme. “All it takes now is money,” says the Belgian linguist. Yemen is not an oil-rich country.

Yemen is the home of the ancient kingdom of Saba or, as it is called in the Bible, Sheba. From here, the Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon. According to the Bible, the land of Sheba was famous for its merchants, its gold and its spices.

According to Father Jamme, the lady who visited Solomon was probably a tribal leader and not a queen at all. Not one inscription from that period contains the word “queen”, he said. The lady was probably given the title queen by the Hebrews because that was the Hebrew equivalent for a person of her status. But Arabian society at the time was very democratic sexually, said Father Jamme. While a man could have more than one wife, a wife could also have more than one husband.

Father Jamme, who was the sole member of his recent expedition to Yemen, reported that conditions there are still quite primitive: “One must be willing to eat anything and to drink anything, no matter how green.” During the last 15 days of his trip he spent $7.00 on food and lodging. His account of how to live in Yemen on $3.50 a week would not attract many tourists. His formula for enabling himself to eat and drink whatever is available is to arise as early as possible and work so hard that when evening comes you are so hungry and so thirsty that you will eat and drink anything. This same regimen will enable one to sleep despite the bedbugs, he said. He displayed a forearm full of scars from bedbug bites, to prove his point.

Father Jamme also reported seeing a number of Yemeni Jews in small villages, living apparently amicably with their Moslem neighbors.

Among the most startling finds of his recent trip was a list of South Arabian kings that dates back as far as the tenth century, B.C. That such a list existed was discovered by a nineteenth century Jewish traveler named Eduard Glazer. However, until now, its location had not been known. Father Jamme refuses to divulge the exact location of this inscription until he publishes it. He did say, however, that the list did not contain any tenth century queen who might be the one mentioned in the Bible.

Because Yemen has little oil, it is quite poor, unlike its giant neighbour Saudi Arabia. Last December Harvard Professor Frank M. Cross, Jr. and Rev. Thomas Newman of the American Schools of Oriental Research, visited Saudi Arabia to investigate the possibility of doing a major archaeological survey of that country. However, final arrangements with the Saudi government have not yet been concluded, according to Professor Cross.

Father Jamme’s expedition was made under the auspices of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. According to Dr. James L. Swauger, Associate 013Director of the Museum, the Yemenis want their own people to be trained as archaeologists. They want the world to understand Yemen and its history, he says.

Father Jamme plans to return to Yemen for a six-month’s stay during the coming year. Among the things he hopes to confirm is who was responsible for turning the Yemen government against the American archaeological expedition in 1952. On his recent trip, Father Jamme believes he learned the full story behind the mystery. It is, he said, a tale of international Arab jealousies and pride which leads to the door of an Egyptian archaeologist. The full story will be told, he said, when he confirms the details on his next trip.

Opportunities for archaeological investigation appear to be opening up in the Arabian peninsula for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, according to reports from Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Recently returned from a four-month visit to Yemen, Father Albert Jamme of Catholic University visited 70 sites, copied over 300 formal South Arabian inscriptions and over 900 graffiti. Father Jamme is generally recognized as the world’s leading South Arabian epigrapher.