The Arts of Ancient South Arabia (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780500978535)

Between the third millennium BCE and the third century CE the Arabian Peninsula lay at the center of maritime trading routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. A series of remarkable archaeological excavations over the past forty years have enabled a complete reassessment of ancient Arabia's wider history--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; and a range of intriguing objects that furnished homes and temples. The collection extends to a variety of gold jewelry, examined and cataloged by ancient-jewelry 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; part 2, by leading South Arabian archaeologist Sabina Antonini, comprises the catalog of the collection itself, divided by object type.