Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies – serie

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2003.

CONTENTS: (1) Saad A. al-Rashid, The development of archaeology in Saudi Arabia; (2) Laïla Nehmé, Towards an understanding of the urban space of Madāin Salih, ancient Hegra, through epigraphic evidence; (3) Diane Barker & Salah Ali Hassan, Aspects of east coast Hellenism and beyond: Late Pre-Islamic ceramics from Dibbā 76 and Dibbā al-MurabbaΚah, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates; (4) Mark Beech, Richard Cuttler, Derek Moscrop, Heiko Kallweit & John Martin, New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; (5) Ali Tigani ElMahi & Nasser Said Al Jahwari, Graves at Mahleya in Wādī Κandām (Sultanate of Oman): a view of a late Iron Age and Samad period death culture; (6) Heiko Kallweit, Mark Beech & Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti, Kharimat Khor al-Manāhil and Khor Āl Manāhīl — New Neolithic sites in the south-eastern desert of the UAE; (7) Jürgen Schreiber, Archaeological survey at Ibrām in the Sharqīyah, Sultanate of Oman; (8) Donatella Usai, Chisels or perforators? The lithic industry of Ras al-Hamra 5 (Muscat, Oman); (9) Paul Yule, The Samad Culture — Echoes; (10) Soumyen Bandyopadhyay, Diversity in unity: an analysis of the settlement structure of Hārat al-Κaqr, Nizwā (Oman); (11) Abdulrahman Al-Salimi, Makramid rule in Oman; (12) Valeria Fiorani Piacentini, Sohar and the Daylamī interlude (356–443/967–1051); (12) Alessandra Avanzini & Alexander V. Sedov, The stratigraphy of Sumhuram: new evidence; (13) Lamya Khalidi, The prehistoric and early historic settlement patterns on the Tihāmah coastal plain (Yemen): preliminary findings of the Tihamah Coastal Survey 2003; (14) Krista Lewis, The Himyarite site of al-Adhla and its implications for the economy and chronology of Early Historic highland Yemen; (15) Joy McCorriston, Michael Harrower, Eric Oches & Abdalaziz Bin Κaqil, Foraging economies and population in the Middle Holocene highlands of southern Yemen; (16) Carl S. Phillips, A preliminary description of the pottery from al-Hāmid and its significance in relation to other pre-Islamic sites on the Tihāmah; (17) Eivind Heldaas Seland, Ancient South Arabia: trade and strategies of state control as seen in the Periplus Maris Erythraei; (18) Peter Stein, Once again, the division of the month in Ancient South Arabia; (19); Claire Hardy-Guilbert, The harbour of al-Shihr, Hadramawt, Yemen: sources and archaeological data on trade (20) Ingrid Hehmeyer, Diurnal time measurement for water allocation in southern Yemen; (20) Mikhail Rodionov, "Satanic matters": social conflict in Madūdah (Hadramawt), 1357/1938; (21) Axelle Rougeulle, The Sharma horizon: sgraffiato wares and other glazed ceramics of the Indian Ocean trade (c. AD 980–1140); (22) Yosef Tobi, An unknown study by Joseph Halévy on his journey to Yemen.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international academic forum which meets annually for the presentation of research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula. It focuses on the fields of archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, and numismatics from the earliest times to the present day. A wide range of original and stimulating papers presented at the Seminar are published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and reflect the dynamism and scope of the interdisciplinary event. The main foci of the Seminar in 2014, in chronological order were the Palaeolithic and Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, Early Historical and Classical periods, Heritage Management, Islamic Archaeology and History. In addition there were sessions on Ethnography, on Language, and with a session dedicated to the Archaeology and History of ancient Yemen. In addition, on the evening of Saturday, 26 July 2014, Professor Lloyd Weeks, Head of the School of Humanities, the University of University of New England, New South Wales, Australia, a long supporter of the Seminar and Foundation, presented the MBI Lecture entitled ‘The Quest for the Copper of Magan: how early metallurgy shaped Arabia and set the horizons of the Bronze Age world’ and as always provided an informative, interesting and lucid lecture. This volume also includes notes in memoriam on Nigel Groom (1924–2014), ‘Arabist, historian, spy-catcher, and writer on perfume’; and on Professor Tony Wilkinson (1948–2014), Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh (2005–2006) and Professor of Archaeology at Durham University (2006–2014) who specialised in landscape archaeology.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international academic forum that meets annually for the presentation of research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula. It focuses on the fields of archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, and numismatics from the earliest times to the present day. A wide range of original and stimulating papers presented at the Seminar is published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and reflects the dynamism and scope of the interdisciplinary event. The Proceedings present the cutting edge of new research on Arabia and include reports of new discoveries in the Peninsula. They are published each spring in time for the subsequent Seminar, which is held in July. The main foci of the Seminar in 2015, in descending order of the number of papers presented in each session were North Arabia, South Arabia and Aksum, Archaeological Survey and Field Methods, Bronze and Iron Ages in Eastern Arabia, Islamic Archaeology, and Neolithic Archaeology. In addition, there were sessions on Recent Cultural History in Arabia, and Heritage Management in Arabia, as well as a special session on the Nabataean world titled ‘Beyond the “rose-red” city: the hinterland of Petra and Nabatean rural sites’, which featured a total of six papers. This volume also includes notes in memoriam on Professor Andrzej Zaborski (1942–2014), Professor Ordinarius at the Jagellonian University of Cracow, who specialized in Afro-Asiatic linguistics, Semitic and Cushitic in particular.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968, it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Seminar meets for three days each year, with an ever-increasing number of participants coming from around the globe to attend. In 2016 the fiftieth meeting took place, in which sixty papers and posters were presented in London at the British Museum, where this prestigious event has been hosted since 2002. The Seminar also regularly hosts a special session focusing on a specific aspect of the Humanities on the Arabian Peninsula, enabling a range of experts to present their research to a wider audience. In 2016 this special session was entitled ‘Textiles and Personal Adornment in the Arabian Peninsula’, which provided a fascinating overview of research on dress, textiles, and adornment in the Middle East.

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the Middle East Centre, Cambridge 22-23 June, 1970 (Vol. 1), the Oriental Institute, Oxford 22-23 September, 1971 (Vol. 2), and at the Institute of Archaeology, London 27-28 September, 1972 (Vol. 3).

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1975.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1978.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1984.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1986.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1989.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1995.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies has come a long way since 1968 when it was first convened, yet it remains the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. This is clearly reflected in the ever-increasing number of researchers from all over the world who come each year to the three-day Seminar to present and discuss their latest research and fieldwork. The Seminar has covered, and continues to cover, an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922/1923). Papers presented at the Seminar have all been subjected to an intensive review process before they are accepted for publication in the Proceedings. The rigorous nature of the reviews undertaken by a range of specialists ensures that the highest academic standards are maintained. A supplementary volume, ‘Languages, scripts and their uses in ancient North Arabia’ edited by M.C.A. Macdonald (ISBN 9781784918996, Archaeopress, 2018), is also available containing the proceedings from the special session held during the seminar on 5 August 2017.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968, it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Seminar meets for three days each year, with an ever-increasing number of participants coming from around the globe to attend. In 2018 the fifty-second meeting took place, in which fifty-seven papers and posters were presented in London at the British Museum, where this prestigious event has been hosted since 2002.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968 it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).The 53rd Seminar for Arabian Studies was hosted by the University of Leiden and took place in the Lipsius Building from Thursday IASA. In total sixty-five papers and twenty-three posters were presented at the three-day event. On Friday 12 July a special session on the stone tools of prehistoric Arabia was held, the papers from this session are published in a supplement to the main Seminar Proceedings.

During the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in Leiden (July 2019), a special one-day session on the stone tools of prehistoric Arabia was held. Stone tools are generally associated with the oldest archaeological periods of human existence, the Palaeolithic, and are the most lasting vestiges of our ancestors’ productive activities. In Arabia, stone tools (or lithics) are found on the deflated surfaces close to raw material outcrops, high on the top of mountains and deep within valleys and terraces, on lake relics at the heart of the many sand seas, and even under water. For a long time, however, stratified archaeological records were rare and developing chronological frameworks was therefore a challenge. The discoveries made by international archaeological projects conducted across Arabia in recent years have made vital contributions to the field; the archaeological investigation of human origins in the Arabian Peninsula and a better understanding of cultural diversification throughout prehistory are good examples. The interpretation of the new finds provides alternative scenarios for how prehistoric human populations interacted with the diverse landscapes of Arabia, suggesting the Peninsula was not merely a crossroads or superhighway of expansion for anatomically modern humans but also functioned as a human habitat throughout the Pleistocene. The present Supplement to Volume 50 of the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies addresses these and many particularly emerging interests on the deep past of the Arabian Peninsula.

While Saudi Arabia’s first inscribed World Heritage Site, Ḥegrā (al‑Ḥijr) — Nabataean sister city of Petra — may be the best-known archaeological site in north-west Saudi Arabia, the region is extremely rich in cultural heritage beyond it. The special session Revealing Cultural Landscapes in North-west Arabia, included in the 54th Seminar for Arabian Studies (delayed from 2020 to 2021), presented the latest findings at a range of sites in this critical but understudied area of Saudi Arabia, showcasing a deep and complex past through many millennia.Since the establishment of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) in 2017, a result of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, extraordinary attention and resources have been exacted on the study of the archaeological assets and cultural heritage of al‑ʿUlā County, within its oases and beyond, and shortly after of Khaybar, when parts came under RCU’s jurisdiction. A strategy and initial programme of research projects were established, and in 2019 the French Agency for the Development of AlUla (Afalula), the key partner of RCU, began sponsoring archaeological research as well. Unsurprisingly, therefore, recent work in al‑ʿUlā and Khaybar predominate the volume. The results and analyses offered in the articles derive from survey, extensive targeted excavation at multiple sites, and intensive excavation and studies at single sites. Together the papers present a range of recent discoveries that demonstrate north-west Arabia’s centrality to understanding the greater region and further, and to begin to clarify the extraordinary richness of life in this pivotal zone of the Arabian Peninsula from the Palaeolithic through to the Islamic period.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the longest-running academic forum dedicated to the presentation of research on the cultural and natural heritage of the Arabian Peninsula. Since its first meeting in 1968, the Seminar has covered a wide range of subjects including archaeology, epigraphy, history, ethnography, art, architecture, linguistics, and literature from prehistory to the present. In 2019 the Seminar changed from being a British-based forum to an international setting, starting with a meeting at the University of Leiden and continuing with other European institutions. 2025 marks another turning point, as the meeting is being organized for the first time in the Arabian Peninsula, at the Zayed National Museum, Department of Culture and Tourism (Abu Dhabi), bringing this increasingly important international meeting to the region.The 57th Seminar for Arabian Studies, held in Paris in 2024, was a particularly memorable event, bringing together scholars from a broad range of disciplines to discuss the archaeology, history, epigraphy, and philology of the Arabian Peninsula. This volume includes seventeen papers presented in the ordinary sessions and three papers presented in the special session ‘Zaydi governance in Yemen’.

Contents: 1) Coastal prehistory in the southern Red Sea Basin, underwater archaeology, and the Farasan Islands (Geoff Bailey, Abdullah AlSharekh, Nic Flemming, Kurt Lambeck, Garry Momber, Anthony Sinclair & Claudio Vita-Finzi); 2) Chronologie et evolution de l'architecture a Makaynun: la formation d'un centre urbain a l'epoque sudarabique dans le Hadramawt (A. Benoist, O. Lavigne, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte); 3) A preliminary study on the materials employed in ancient Yemeni mummification and burial practices (summary) (Stephen A. Buckley, Joann Fletcher, Khalid Al-Thour, Mohammed Basalama & Don R. Brothwell); 4) From Safer to Balhaf: rescue excavations along the Yemen LNG pipeline route (Remy Crassard & Holger Hitgen); 5) Pastoral nomadic communities of the Holocene climatic optimum: excavation and research at Kharimat Khor al-Manahil and Khor al-Manahil in the Rub al-Khali, Abu Dhabi (Richard Cuttler, Mark Beech, Heiko Kallweit, Anja Zander & Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti); 6) Flip the coin. Preliminary results of compositional EDX analyses on south-east Arabian coins from ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE) (Parsival Delrue); 7) Spreading the Neolithic over the Arabian Peninsula (Philipp Drechsler); 8) Water and waste in mediaeval Zabid, Yemen (Ingrid Hehmeyer); 9) Tribal links between the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle Euphrates at the beginning of the second millennium BC (Christine Kepinski); 10) Rare photographs from the 1930s and 1940s by Yihye Haybi, a Yemenite Jew from Sana: historical reality and ethnographic deductions (Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper); 11) Stargazing in traditional water management: a case study in northern Oman (Harriet Nash); 12) Al Qisha: archaeological investigations at an Islamic period Yemeni village (Audrey Peli & Florian Tereygeol, Al-Radrad (al-Jabali): a Yemeni silver mine, first results of the French mission (2006) (Lynne S. Newton); 13) A biographical sketch of Britain's first Sabaeologist: Colonel W.F. Prideaux, CSI (Carl Phillips & St J. Simpson); 14) The Arabian Corridor Migration Model: archaeological evidence for hominin dispersals into Oman during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene (Jeffrey Rose); 15) Ceramic production in mediaeval Yemen: the Yadgat kiln site (Axelle Rougeulle); 16) The word slm/snm and some words for "statue, idol" in Arabian and other Semitic languages (Fiorella Scagliarini); 16) "Transformation processes in oasis settlements in Oman" 2005 archaeological survey at the oasis of Nizwa: a preliminary report (Juergen Schreiber); 17) Middle Palaeolithic — or what? New sites in Sharjah, UAE (Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson & Sabah Jasim); 18) Rites and funerary practices at Rawk during the fourth millennium BC (Wadi ‘Idim, Yemen) (T. Steimer-Herbet, J-F. Saliege, T. Sagory, O. Lavigne & A. as-Saqqaf, in collaboration with M. Mashkour & H. Guy); 19) The sources on the Fitna of Masud b. Amr al-Azdi and their uses for Basran tribal history (Brian Ulrich); 20) The beads of ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE) (An De Waele); 21) Aspects of recent archaeological work at al-Balid (Íafar), Sultanate of Oman (Juris Zarins); 22) Towards a new theory: the state of Bani Mahdi, the fourth imamate in Yemen (Ahmad b. Umar al-Zaylai).

CONTENTS: Abdol Rauh Yaccob, British policy on Arabia before the First World War: an internal argument; Adrian G. Parker &. Jeffrey I. Rose, Climate change and human origins in southern Arabia; Alexandrine Guérin & Faysal Abdallah al-Na’imi, Nineteenth century settlement patterns at Zekrit, Qatar: pottery, tribes and territory; Anthony E. Marks, Into Arabia, perhaps, but if so, from where?; Audrey Peli, A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203– 442/818–1050); Aurelie Daems & An De Waele, Some reflections on human-animal burials from pre-Islamic south-east Arabia (poster); Brian Ulrich, The Azd migrations reconsidered: narratives of ‘Amr Muzayqiya and Mālik b. Fahm in historiographic context; Christian Darles, Derniers résultats, nouvelles datations et nouvelles données sur les fortifications de Shabwa (Hadramawt); Eivind Heldaas Seland, The Indian ships at Moscha and the Indo-Arabian trading circuit; Fabio Cavulli & Simona Scaruffi, Stone vessels from KHB-1, Ja’lān region, Sultanate of Oman (poster); Francesco G. Fedele, Wādī al-Tayyilah 3, a Neolithic and Pre-Neolithic occupation on the eastern Yemen Plateau, and its archaeofaunal information; Ghanim Wahida, Walid Yasin al-Tikriti & Mark Beech, Barakah: a Middle Palaeolithic site in Abu Dhabi Emirate; Jeffrey I. Rose & Geoff N. Bailey, Defining the Palaeolithic of Arabia? Notes on the Roundtable Discussion; Jeffrey I. Rose, Introduction: special session to define the Palaeolithic of Arabia; Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson, Jeffrey Rose & Sabah Jasim, Investigating Upper Pleistocene stone tools from Sharjah, UAE: Interim report; Krista Lewis & Lamya Khalidi, From prehistoric landscapes to urban sprawl: the Masn’at Māryah region of highland Yemen; Michael J. Harrower, Mapping and dating incipient irrigation in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt (Yemen); Mikhail Rodionov, The jinn in Hadramawt society in the last century; Mohammed A.R. al-Thenayian, The Red Sea Tihami coastal ports in Saudi Arabia; Mohammed Maraqten, Women’s inscriptions recently discovered by the AFSM at the Awām temple/Mahram Bilqīs in Marib, Yemen; Nasser Said al-Jahwari & Derek Kennet, A field methodology for the quantification of ancient settlement in an Arabian context; Rémy Crassard, The “Wa’shah method”: an original laminar debitage from Hadramawt, Yemen; Saad bin Abdulaziz al-Rāshid, Sadd al-Khanaq: an early Umayyad dam near Medina, Saudi Arabia; Ueli Brunner, Ancient irrigation in Wādī Jirdān; Vincent Charpentier & Sophie Méry, A Neolithic settlement near the Strait of Hormuz: Akab Island, United Arab Emirates; Vincent Charpentier, Hunter-gatherers of the “empty quarter of the early Holocene” to the last Neolithic societies: chronology of the late prehistory of south-eastern Arabia (8000–3100 BC); Yahya Asiri, Relative clauses in the dialect of Rijal Alma’ (south-west Saudi Arabia); Yosef Tobi, Sālôm (Sālim) al-Sabazī’s (seventeenth-century) poem of the debate between coffee and qāt; Zaydoon Zaid & Mohammed Maraqten, The Peristyle Hall: remarks on the history of construction based on recent archaeological and epigraphic evidence of the AFSM expedition to the Awām temple in Mārib, Yemen

Contents: V.M. Azzarà, Domestic architecture at the Early Bronze Age sites HD–6 and RJ–2 (JaΚalān, Sultanate of Oman); Mark Beech, Marjan Mashkour, Matthias Huels & Antoine Zazzo, Prehistoric camels in south-eastern Arabia: the discovery of a new site in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region, United Arab Emirates; Mohammed Ali Al-Belushi & Ali Tigani ElMahi, Archaeological investigations in Shenah, Sultanate of Oman; Lucia Benediková & Peter Barta, A Bronze Age settlement at al-KhiΡr, Failakah Island, Kuwait; Olivier Brunet, Bronze and Iron Age carnelian bead production in the UAE and Armenia: new perspectives; Ingo Buchmann, Tobias Schröder & Paul Yule, Documentation and visualisation of archaeological sites in Yemen: an antique relief wall in Zafār (poster); Fabio Cavulli, Emanuela Cristiani & Simona Scaruffi, Techno-functional analysis at the fishing settlement of KHB–1 (RaΜs al-Khabbah, JaΚalān, Sultanate of Oman); Julien Charbonnier, Dams in the western mountains of Yemen: a Дimyarite model of water management; Christian Darles, Les monolithes dans l’architecture monumentale de l’Arabie du Sud antique; Daniel Eddisford & Carl Phillips, Kalbā in the third millennium (Emirate of Sharjah, UAE); Bat-Zion Eraqi-Klorman, Yemen: religion, magic, and Jews; Francesco G. Fedele, Sabaean animal economy and household consumption at Yalā, eastern Khawlān al-Кiyāl, Yemen; Serge A. Frantsouzoff, The status of sacred pastures according to Sabaic inscriptions; Jessica Giraud & Serge Cleuziou, Funerary landscape as part of the social landscape and its perceptions: 3000 Early Bronze Age burials in the eastern JaΜlān (Sultanate of Oman); Alexandrine Guérin & Faysal al-NaΜimi, Territory and settlement patterns during the Abbasid period (ninth century AD): the village of Murwab (Qatar); Mária Hajnalová, Zora Miklíková & Tereza Belanová-Štolcová, Environmental research at al-KhiΡr, Failakah Island, Kuwait; Hani Hayajneh, Ancient North Arabian–Nabataean bilingual inscriptions from southern Jordan; Marco Iamoni, The Iron Age ceramic tradition in the Gulf: a re-evaluation from the Omani perspective; Manfred Kropp, “People of powerful South Arabian kings” or just “people of their kind we annihilated before”? Proper noun or common noun in QurΜān 44:37 and 50:14; Johannes Kutterer & Sabah A. Jasim, First report on the copper-smelting site HLO-1 in Wādī al-Hilo, UAE; Romolo Loreto, House and household: a contextual approach to the study of South Arabian domestic architecture. A case study from seventh- to sixth-century BC Yalā/ad-Durayb; Louise Martin, Joy McCorriston & Rémy Crassard, Early Arabian pastoralism at Manayzah in Wādī Сanā, Hadramawt; Giovanni Mazzini & Alexandra Porter, Stela BM 102600=CIH 611 in the British Museum: water regulation between two bordering estates; Anne Multhoff, “A parallel to the Second Commandment…” revisited; Khudooma al-NaΜimi, The discovery of insect remains associated with a Bronze Age tomb in the United Arab Emirates: a preliminary study (poster); Andrew Petersen, Islamic urbanism in eastern Arabia: the case of the al-ΚAyn–al-Buraymī oasis; Valeria Fiorani Piacentini & Christian Velde, The battle of Julfār (880/1475); Alexandra Porter, Rebecca Stacey & Brendan Derham, The function of ceramic jar Type 4100: a preliminary organic residue analysis; C.N. Reeler, N.Y. Al-Shaikh & D.T. Potts, An historical cartographic study of the Yabrīn oasis, Saudi Arabia; Katrien Rutten, South-east Arabian pottery at ed-Dur (al-Dūr), Umm al-Qaiwayn, UAE: its origin, distribution, and role in the local economy; Abdulrahman al-Salimi, The Wajīhids of Oman.

Contents: Introduction: The development of Arabic as a written language (Christian Julien Robin); Ancient Arabia and the written word (M.C.A. Macdonald); Mount Nebo, Jabal Ramm, and the status of Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Old Arabic in Late Roman Palestine and Arabia (Robert Hoyland); A glimpse of the development of the Nabataean script into Arabic based on old and new epigraphic material (Laïla Nehmé); The evolution of the Arabic script in the period of the Prophet MuΉammad and the Orthodox Caliphs in the light of new inscriptions discovered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (‘Alī Ibrāhīm Al-Ghabbān); In search of a standard: dialect variation and New Arabic features in the oldest Arabic written documents (Pierre Larcher); The codex Parisino-petropolitanus and the Ήijāzī scripts (François Déroche); The relationship of literacy and memory in the second/eighth century (Gregor Schoeler); The Use of the Arabic script in magic (Venetia Porter); The Old Arabic graffito at Jabal Usays: A new reading of line 1 (M.C.A. Macdonald).

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 41 2011, Papers from the forty-fourth meeting, held at the British Museum, London, 22–24 July 2010. Contents: 1) Some observations on women in Omani sources (Olga Andriyanova); 2) Archaeological landscape characterization in Qatar through satellite and aerial photographic analysis, 2009 to 2010 (Paul Breeze, Richard Cuttler & Paul Collins); 3) Fishing kit implements from KHB-1: net sinkers and lures (poster) (Fabio Cavulli & Simona Scaruffi); 4) The distribution of storage and diversion dams in the western mountains of South Arabia during the Himyarite period (Julien Charbonnier); 5) Assessing the value of palaeoenvironmental data and geomorphological processes for understanding Late Quaternary population dynamics in Qatar (Richard Cuttler, Emma Tetlow & Faisal al-Naimi); 6) Les fortifications de Khor Rorī – ‘Sumhuram’ (poster) (Christian Darles); 7) Places of contact, spheres of interaction. The Ubaid phenomenon in the central Gulf area as seen from a first season of reinvestigations at Dosariyah (Dawsāriyyah), Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia (Philipp Drechsler0; 8) khushub musannadah (Qurān 63. 4) and Epigraphic South Arabian ms3nd (Orhan Elmaz); 9) Walled structures and settlement patterns in the south-western part of Dhofar, Oman (poster) (Roman Garba & Peter Farrington);10) The wall and talus at Barāqish, ancient Yathill (al-Jawf, Yemen): a Minaean stratigraphy (Francesco G. Fedele); 11) Through evangelizing eyes: American missionaries to Oman (Hilal al-Hajri); 12) Quantified analysis of long-term settlement trends in the northern Oman peninsula (Nasser Said al-Jahwari); 13) Yeha and Hawelti: cultural contacts between Saba and DMT – New research by the German Archaeological Institute in Ethiopia (Sarah Japp, Iris Gerlach, Holger Hitgen & Mike Schnelle); 14) The Kadhima Project: investigating an Early Islamic settlement and landscape on Kuwait Bay (poster) (Derek Kennet, Andrew Blair, Brian Ulrich & Sultan M. al-Duwīsh); 15) Typology of incense-burners of the Islamic period (Sterenn Le Maguer); 16) A geomorphological and hydrological underpinning for archaeological research in northern Qatar (Phillip G. Macumber); 17) Recent investigations at the prehistoric site RH-5 (Ras al-Hamrā, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman) (Lapo Gianni Marcucci, Francesco Genchi, Émilie Badel & Maurizio Tosi); 18) Geoarchaeological investigations at the site of Julfār (al-Nudūd and al-Matāf), Ras al-Khaymah, UAE: preliminary results from the auger-hole survey (poster) (Mike Morley, Robert Carter & Christian Velde); 19) Conserving and contextualizing national cultural heritage: the 3-D digitization of the fort at al-Zubārah and petroglyphs at Jabal al-Jusāsiyyah, Qatar (poster) (Helen Moulden, Richard Cuttler & Shane Kelleher); 20) Reassessing Wādī Debayan (Wādī al-Dabayān): an important Early Holocene Neolithic multi-occupational site in western Qatar (poster) (Faisal al-Naimi, Kathryn M. Price, Richard Cuttler & Hatem Arrock); 21) Research on an Islamic period settlement at Ras Ushayriq in northern Qatar and some observations on the occurrence of date presses (Andrew Petersen); 22) Relations between southern Arabia and the northern Horn of Africa during the last millennium BC (David W. Phillipson); 23) Bayt Bin Ātī in the Qattārah oasis: a prehistoric industrial site and the formation of the oasis landscape of al-Ain, UAE (Timothy Power & Peter Sheehan); 24) The Sabaic inscription A–20–216: a new Sabaean-Seleucid synchronism (Alessia Prioletta); 25) Al-Suwaydirah (old al-Taraf) and its Early Islamic inscriptions (Saad bin Abdulaziz al-Rashid); 26) Investigations in al-Zubārah hinterland at Murayr and al-Furayhah, north-west Qatar (poster) (Gareth Rees, Tobias Richter & Alan Walmsley); 27) Pearl fishers, townsfolk, Bedouin, and shaykhs: economic and social relations in Islamic al-Zubārah (Tobias Richter, Paul Wordsworth & Alan Walmsley); 28) Contemporary tribal versions of local history in Hadramawt (Mikhail Rodionov); 29) A view of the defence strategy of Muharraq, a tribal town in the Gulf (poster); 30) Solaiman Abd al-Rahmān al-Theeb, New Nabataean inscriptions from the site of al-Sīj in the region of al-Ulā, Saudi Arabia (Abdulla Al-Sulaiti); 31) Al-Zubārah Archaeological Park as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site – a master plan for its site management, preservation, and presentation (poster) (Ingolf Thuesen & Moritz Kinzel); 32) Oman and Bahrain in Late Antiquity: the Sasanians’ Arabian periphery (Brian Ulrich); 33) From the port of Mocha to the eighteenth-century tomb of Imām al-Mahdī MuΉammad in al-Mawāhib: locating architectural icons and migratory craftsmen (Nancy Um); 34) Drummers of the Najd: musical practices from Wādī al-Dawāsir, Saudi Arabia (Lisa Urkevich); 35) The Jewel of Muscat Project: reconstructing an early ninth-century CE Shipwreck (Tom Vosmer, Luca Belfioretti, Eric Staples & Alessandro Ghidoni); 36) Lateral fricatives and lateral emphatics in southern Saudi Arabia and Mehri (Janet C.E. Watson & Munira Al-Azraqi).

Introduction - The Nabataeans in focus (Laïla Nehmé & Lucy Wadeson); 1) Landscapes north of Petra: the Petra Area and Wādī Silaysil Survey (Brown University Petra Archaeological Project, 2010-2011) (Susan E. Alcock & Alex R. Knodell); 2) Nabataean or Late Roman? Reconsidering the date of the built sections and milestones along the Petra–Gaza road (Chaim Ben David); 3) Reinventing the sacred: from shrine to monastery at Jabal Hārūn (Zbigniew T. Fiema, ); 4) Dating the early phases under the temenos of the QaΒr al-Bint at Petra (F. Renel, M. Mouton, C. Augé, C. Gauthier, C. Hatté, J-F. Saliège & A. Zazzo); 5) A Nabataean shrine to Isis in Wādī Abū Ullayqah, in the south-west of Petra (Marie-Jeanne Roche); 6) The palaces of the Nabataean kings at Petra (Stephan G. Schmid, Piotr Bienkowski, Zbigniew T. Fiema & Bernhard Kolb); 7) The funerary landscape of Petra: results from a new study (Lucy Wadeson); 8) The International Aslah Project, Petra: new research and new questions (Robert Wenning in cooperation with Laurent Gorgerat).

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2012.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2013.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2002.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies has come a long way since 1968 when it was first convened, yet it remains the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. This is clearly reflected in the ever-increasing number of researchers from all over the world who come each year to the three-day Seminar to present and discuss their latest research and fieldwork. Most of the papers published in this volume were presented at a Special Session of the fifty-first Seminar for Arabian Studies, held at the British Museum on 5 August 2017. Its subject was ‘Languages, scripts, and their uses in ancient North Arabia’ and it was held to celebrate the completion in the previous March of Phase 2 of the ‘Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia’ (OCIANA).