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1 Pilot-3D-Digitizing of Rare Old-South-Arabian Squeezes of the 19th Century Glaser Collection (DH 2014/02) Team Head of Project, OeAW Petra Aigner Co-worker, OeAW, UNI George Hatke (transcription, translation, commentary) Working contracts Ronald Ruzicka (transcription, technical support) Lorenz Nigst (Geonames) Freelancer Daniel Mahoney (Geonames, georeferencing) OeAW, ACDH Christoph Hoffmann (ADLIB support, database) 3D-Scanning Bernhard Mayrhofer, VirtuMake, Wien (of 700 squeezes, post-processing) Progress 04/ / of 700 squeezes scanned, 356 transcribed, partly translated, commented in the database, about 50 georeferenced Yemenite names Web-application will be ready next year

2 Basic Information: SAMPLE ENTRY AT-OeAW-BA-3-27-A-GL971 GL971 Description: Segment of the so-called "Hierodule List" (Maʿīn 93A = M 392 A) Content: Place: Monumental Writing Maʿīn (Qarnā) Transliteration: 52.hnʾ [bn] ᶜbd ḏ-sqm ḏ-ʾ[hl g= 53.b]Γʾ [n sk]rb w-[ḫś]γr sγl mγb w bn [ġ-] 54.zt Translation: 52.Hāniʾ bin ʿAbd of Saqam of the tribe of Ga- 53.bʾān has married and paid the bride price for Salambū from Ga- 54.za.

3 Interpretation: The tribe of Gabʾān to which Hāniʾ bin ʿAbd belongs is by far the most commonly attested Minaean tribe in the list, as it is mentioned no fewer than thirty-two times (in addition to this entry, Maʿīn 93A/4, 10, 13, 16, 25, 30, 44-5, 47, 49, 51, 56; Maʿīn 93B/12, 41; Maʿīn 93C/4, 12, 16, 20, 29, 33, 53; Maʿīn 93D/2, 10, 27, 37, 40; Maʿīn 94/6; Maʿīn 95/11; Maʿīn 96/15; Maʿīn 98/1-2, 4, 8; al-saʿīd 2002/2009/4). This tribe has been identified with a people called the Gebbanitai who, according to Pliny the Elder, were involved with South Arabia's aromatics trade (Beeston 1972; but see Bukharin 2007: 83). Hāniʾ's clan of Saqam is one to which another member of the Gabʾān tribe, one Qāmish bin Ḥaram, also belongs (Maʿīn 93A/44). The name of the wife, Salambū, has been explained by some scholars in the past as being of Punic origin, though this is unlikely in view of the woman's Gazan origins and it is more probable that she was named after the Syro- Phoenician goddess Σαλαμβώ, who is otherwise known only from Graeco-Roman sources (Robin in Sznycer et al. 1976: 184-9). In that case, the element -bū in her name is most likely an abbreviated form of the theonym Baʿal (ibid.: 189). Another woman from Gaza mentioned in the list (Maʿīn 93C/17-18) bears the same name. Salambū's home town of Gaza was located at the northern terminus of the main caravan route from South Arabia (Pliny the Elder, HN 12.32) and is by far the most commonly mentioned foreign place name in this list, being attested some thirty-one times (in addition to this entry, Maʿīn 93A/8, 14, 17, 23, 26, 34, 39, 41, 43, 47-8, 49-50, 51-2; Maʿīn 93B/13; Maʿīn 93C/6, 13-14, 18, 21, 31, 44-5, 48; Maʿīn 93D/4, 12, 18-19, 22, 25, 29; Maʿīn 95/6, 9; Maʿīn 97/1; al-saʿīd 2002/2009/3). Under Ptolemaic rule, Gaza served as a customs house and as the principal center of trade in southern Palestine: during the third century BCE it minted no fewer than eight types of coins and, according to the Zenon papyri, every long-distance caravan mentioned came and went from the town (Berlin 1997: 6).

4 IMAGES

5 IMPORTANCE OF THE PROJECT 1. Many of the squeezes, even if published, are only found in hard-to-find periodicals. In some cases the translations and interpretations of the material are out of date. 2. In many cases the original inscriptions from which the squeezes were taken are now missing. Due to political circumstances, Yemen is currently inaccessible to scholars wishing to conduct epigraphic or other research. As a result, even when the current whereabouts of an inscription are known, the inscription is inaccessible. 3. South Arabia remains one of the least known regions of the ancient world. Many historians of antiquity are unaware of the wealth of epigraphic material in Yemen. A number of the squeezes in the ÖAW s collection are taken from inscriptions that document relations with Syria-Palestine, Egypt, and the Greek world, while others record internal political events. Thematically, many of the inscriptions have parallels with Syro-Palestinian and Mesopotamian texts and are of interest to scholars intent on comparative studies.