The Arts of Ancient South Arabia

A superb collection of spectacular and varied pre-Islamic Arabian artefacts held by The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, many published here for the first time.

Between the third millennium BCE and the third century CE the Arabian Peninsula – present-day Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, as well as the Bahrain archipelago – lay at the centre of maritime trading routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Yet its fascinating pre-Islamic history has only recently begun to be communicated. A series of remarkable archaeological excavations over the past forty years have expanded the picture of the region beyond the simple nomadic desert pastoralism reported by scholars of early Islamic Arab sources. These developments in archaeology have enabled a complete reassessment of the wider history of ancient Arabia – now further illuminated by the spectacular and varied artefacts held by The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait.

This volume reveals superb examples of luxury metalware in bronze, silver and gold, created for a sophisticated elite familiar with trends in both the Greco-Roman world and eastern traditions. It also includes an impressive and diverse collection of funerary statues, stelae and carvings, many votive offerings to local deities, spectacular large loricate bronze statues from Yemen, and a range of intriguing objects that furnished homes and temples. The collection extends to a variety of gold jewellery, which has been examined and catalogued by ancient jewellery specialist Leila Ali Aquil. The inscriptions on these objects, freshly translated and annotated by epigraphist and pre-Islamic scholar Christian Robin, unlock many previously unknown aspects of South Arabian life and beliefs.

This monumental volume is in two parts. Part 1 introduces the South Arabian region, its history, cultures, languages and architecture, providing a valuable and comprehensive overview and context. Part 2, by leading South Arabian archaeologist Sabina Antonini, comprises the catalogue of the collection itself, divided by object type.

For art lovers, historians and philologists, this is a collection of unmatched quality and range from a region long shrouded in mystery, now revealed as a nexus of cultural antiquity.