Qatabānian (or Qatabānic ), one of the four better-documented languages of the Old South Arabian (or "Ṣayhadic") sub-group of South Semitic , was spoken mainly but not exclusively in the kingdom of Qatabān , located in central Yemen. The language is attested between 500 BC and 200 AD. Some two thousand inscriptions are known and written in the Ancient South Arabian Monumental Script , known as Musnad . These inscriptions are mainly found in Wādī Bayhān and Wādī Ḥārib to the south-east of Ma'rib, and from the plateau to the south of that area. Qatabanian inscriptions increase after the beginning of the 4th century BC when the Sabaeans ceased to dominate the area, and Qatabān became an independent kingdom.
8-546: Qatabanian was spoken in an area across the kingdom of Qatabān as far as Jabal al-'Awd (near Zafar ) in the southwest, and if we are to believe the Greek and Latin writers, it went as far as Bāb al-Mandab on the Red Sea. At the end of the 2nd century AD, Saba' and Ḥaḑramawt finally defeated Qatabān, and the inscriptions ended. The language used to write inscriptions in the kingdom of Awsān , known as Awsānian (or Awsānite),
16-538: A burial site, and many of the dead had been buried with rich goods: pottery, stone vessels, weapons, jewellery and amulets. They found a lot of goods that had been imported from the Mediterranean (rings and glass for example), and goods that has been made in South Arabia but in Mediterranean styles. The results of the excavations so far show that the site was a major settlement between the 1st century BC and
24-640: Is a mountain in the Highlands of Yemen . It has an elevation of 2,942 meters and is the 67th highest mountain in Yemen. It is situated about 25 km south-east of the ancient Himyarite capital of Zafar . The place name ʿwd appears in Old South Arabian inscriptions, and probably refers to the same location as the present day. In ancient times it fell in the administrative district known as Ibb, near Wadi Bana. The mountain had mainly been known as
32-636: Is cognate with the Minaean ˤs 1 t (and with forms in Akkadian , Ugaritic and Hebrew ). The Qatabānian forms for "three" and "six" are the same as the Old Sabaean words: s 2 lṯ (fem. s 2 lṯt ) and s 1 dṯ (fem. s 1 dṯt ). Qatabānian expresses distributives by repeating the number, thus: b-ˤs 2 r ˤs 2 r ḫbṣtm mṣˤm l-ṭt ṭt ywmm "ten full Ḫabṣat coins each for each day". Jabal al-%27Awd Jabal al-'Awd ( Arabic : جبل العود )
40-475: Is virtually identical to Qatabānic, but it is so poorly attested (25 inscriptions) that it remains uncertain whether it is a Qatabānic dialect or a distinct language. Qatabānian has an unusual form for the cardinal number "one": ṭd / fem. ṭt ; this has no known cognates in any of the ancient Semitic languages, although it does appear in modern South Arabian languages (cf. Jibbālī ṭad , fem. ṭit ). Qatabānian also has another word for "one", ˤs 1 tn , which
48-511: The Mediterranean in early Himyaritic times. The German Archaeological Institute subsequently sent six field campaigns to the mountain, though their work was interrupted in 2003 for three years due to tribal unrest. The German archaeologists found that the previous illicit finds had been unearthed from a huge building complex, apparently a large residence with a courtyard, and further digging produced many more important finds, including statues, items of furniture and vessels. The settlement contained
56-538: The site of a podium temple dating back to the middle of the first millennium BC, and settlements in the area were mentioned in the Res Gestae of the Sabaean king Karib'il Watar of Ṣirwāḥ . Jabal al-'Awd had been known since the 19th century for its Qatabānian rock inscription. In the 1970s a French epigraphist, Christian Robin, copied a few of the inscriptions. In the winter of 1996 the attention of archaeologists
64-664: Was finally alerted to the importance of the site thanks to illicit excavations there which had unearthed amazing bronzes, in both South Arabian and Mediterranean styles. In 1998 the German Archaeological Institute requested permission from the Yemeni Archaeology Authority to start official excavations of the site, primarily to establish where exactly the illicitly excavated objects were found, and also to investigate further any evidence of cultural relations between Yemen and especially
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