The Sabaean inscriptions of the Somali coast, about 700 BC

In short

This page follows the first publication of the inscriptions (Prioletta, Robin, Schiettecatte, Gajda and Nuʿmān, "Sabaeans on the Somali coast", Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 32, supplement 1, 2021, pp. 328–339; open version on HAL). Four of the authors are from France's national research centre, CNRS, and one is from the University of Dhamar in Yemen. Page numbers below refer to the open version. For other pre-Islamic writing and burials, see Ancient burials, standing stones and towns.

How the inscriptions came to light

From spring 2019, photographs of "illegally excavated remains and inscriptions" began to circulate online, and some were sent to two of the authors with a request to approach the local authorities. Seven inscribed blocks and an incense altar were reported (p. 1). The authors thank a senior adviser to the President of Puntland, and a Somali resident in the United Kingdom, for photographs sent "to prevent their illegal export" (p. 1).

Where the site is

The finders did not disclose the location; one source named Cape Guardafui and another the town of Qandala. By matching the hills in the photographs with satellite elevation data, the authors place the site on the east coast about 50 km south-south-west of Cape Guardafui, 20 km north of Bargal and 110 km north of Xaafuun, probably near the Abdexan well (p. 2).

They note that the French explorer Georges Révoil reported an ancient temple at a place he called Abdaham in 1880. The photographs show walls of finely dressed stone "typical of South Arabian monumental constructions", and the authors think the two are the same site. They add that built remains of this age are "exceptional" in the Somali lands, where earlier evidence is mostly rock art, megaliths and cairns (p. 2).

Dating

Six of the seven texts are carefully cut in boustrophedon, with lines running alternately right-to-left and left-to-right, in a style close to the standard of the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC. Two name a ruler of Saba called Yathaʿʾamar or Yathaʿʾamar Watar. Three Sabaean rulers had that name. The authors favour the earliest, Yathaʿʾamar Watar son of Yakrubmalik, who reigned in the last quarter of the 8th century BC. They add that this date "remains admittedly highly uncertain" (p. 3).

What the texts say

The inscriptions are numbered Bari 2021-1 to 2021-7, after the region (p. 2). In the authors' translations (pp. 3–9):

• Bari 2021-1. A man "dedicated to Akhakhatān" an offering and his son "when he was priest of Akhakhatān in Rḥbm".
• Bari 2021-3. A man "in charge of the offerings to Akhakhatān" dedicated his life "when he provided the food supplies with his father on the boat of Yuhaythaʿ".
• Bari 2021-4. A man "of Ḥadaqān of Maʾrib" dedicated his children and an altar "when his lord Yathaʿʾamar appointed him", and "directed the boat of Sabaʾ".
• Bari 2021-5. A man placed his possessions and "the life of his female servant" under the god's will.
• Bari 2021-6. A damaged text names Yathaʿʾamar Watar and "the boat of Sabaʾ", and possibly "an expedition".

The other two are a dedication of an inscription and a small fragment. The texts also invoke ʿAthtar, a god worshipped across South Arabia, and Almaqah, the god of Saba (pp. 4, 10).

The word translated "boat" is mrkb, which can also mean a caravan. The authors write that "in the Somali context, there is little doubt that the Sabaeans travelled by sea". If so, this would be the first word for a ship in South Arabian inscriptions from before the Christian era (p. 6).

How the authors read them

• A temple. All the texts are dedications, which to the authors mark the site as a sanctuary or temple of Akhakhatan, a god known otherwise from only two short texts in Yemen. They suggest he "may have been the protector of traders or of sailors" (p. 10).
• A royal venture. The ruler's name, the god Almaqah, the language and the names all point to Saba. One family, Ḥadaqān, is also known from inscriptions at Matara in Eritrea. The authors argue that the expeditions were "a centralised enterprise, organised and managed by Sabaean rulers" (pp. 10–11).
• Pure Sabaic. Unlike the Sabaic inscriptions of Ethiopia and Eritrea, these show no local influence, which the authors take to mean the writers came straight from Saba (p. 11).
• Why there. They think the "primary goal" was aromatic resins, noting that the area has springs and incense trees, and that ancient writers praised its aromatics. The likely route ran along the north coast and round Cape Guardafui (p. 11). See Ancient frankincense and myrrh.

Other South Arabian writing: who says what

• Shalcaw (Shuula). A four-letter inscription reading Ybḥd is cut on a block in a dry-stone tomb near Shalcaw, 25 km south-west of Heis. The authors call it the only other South Arabian inscription known from Somalia, and say its script may be early, though "the argument… is not decisive" (pp. 11–12). See Heis (Xiis).
• Dhagah Nabi Gallay and Dhagah Kure. Sada Mire lists possible Sabaean or Himyarite writing at these rock-art sites (Mire 2015). Having examined published photographs of Dhagah Kure, the authors write that they show "neither convincing signs nor any meaningful sequence of characters" (p. 12, note 60).

Related pages

• Punt and the Somali coast
• Opone and the ancient port at Ras Hafun
• Greek and Roman writers on the Somali coast
• Before 1300: the ancient Somali lands
• Ancient ruins of the north-east recorded by Georges Révoil