Qataban and Sheba

Fascinating book, but then I have a (non-technical) fascination with archaeology, especially when it is presented with an expeditionary view - such as this one.

Phillips was the expedition leader and organiser of the American Foundation for the Study of Man: Southern Arabian Expedition of 1950 & 1951. His book explains all the events of the expedition, which is broken into four parts - I & II to Behian, in the Aden Protectorate, III in Saba (Sheba) in Yemen, IV in Dhofar in Oman. Now days Yemen has taken over all of the Aden Protectorate area.

For parts I & II of the expedition, which represent two archaeological seasons in Behian, in the historical Kingdom of Qataban, everything goes well - good cooperation from the authorities and local Sheiks etc, and the archeological findings are incredible, filling in huge amounts of knowledge for the area. Phillips does a great job getting the most from his team, his local workers (who provide most of the non-technical labour) and builds a trust with the local dignitaries. Towards the end of the season, he receives and invitation from the King of Yemen to come and meet with his to discuss excavating at Marib, thought to be the legendary city of the Kingdom of Saba (Sheba) - a goal Phillips never thought would be possible, as few Europeans, if any had been allowed access before.

An agreement was made with the Yemeni King, Imam Ahmad bin Yahya, who, while King was clutching onto his position which was coveted by his brother. As Wikipedia says Ahmad's ruthless, arbitrary and inconsistent rule made him the subject of a coup attempt, frequent assassination attempts and eventually lead to the downfall of the kingdom shortly after his death.
The agreement was a contract carefully spelling out the conditions and which party had obligations to the other - eg the Yemeni's were to construct and road, airfield and buildings to accommodate the expedition, the archaeological findings were split 50/50. From the very start, the contract was under pressure and not adhered to (by the Yemenis). The expedition constructed a road, the airfield and their own buildings, and were harassed by officials installed by the Kings brother, who constantly made up new rules and baited the men with outrageous requirements.

It was some time before Phillips was physically on the dig, as he had been in the USA rounding up more funding and taking care of Foundation business. Once he returned from the States to Taiz in Yemen he found the situation volatile, and was denied any access to the King, and was told the contract was being cancelled. He also found out that none of the cables sent by the team at Marib ever left the country. When he reached the site, he found the full extent of the danger the team were under, with three or four Yemeni officials all undermining the contract agreement and soldiers becoming more and more threatening. Various members of the team were placed in house arrest, and work was at risk of stopping. Phillips recognised that an evacuation was necessary, and made an elaborate plan for the team to escape. Miraculously this worked out, at great risk, although this meant abandoning all of the equipment and archaeological finds and losing a great deal of money.

Not happy with the expedition ending in this way, Phillips made contact with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, who had offered previously to have the expedition explore the Dhofar area of Oman. Phillips had previously turned them down for the offer in Yemen, but the Sultan was diplomatic enough, knowing how Yemen had ended for Phillips. So right at the end of the book, the team begin part IV of the expedition, excavating in Dhofar. The books ends with them taking up work here.

Throughout the book there are excellent (black and white) photographs of the archaeology, the people and the finds. There are many photos, one photo page for every 4 to 6 pages of text! There are good coloured maps on the end-pages of the book, and some more detailed archaeological maps scattered throughout - overall a very well presented book.

A somewhat obscure book I was pleased to find.
5 stars

PS I have not tried to summarise of explain their findings - it was a complex web of histories which overlap in these ancient Kingdoms.
There is one brief summary adjacent to a map which states:
Range of Inscriptions now know which mention the statesMa'in 4th BC - 1st BCSaba (Sheba) 8th BC - 6th ADQataban 7th(?) BC - 1st ADTimna destroyed between 25BC - 1BCHadhramuat 5th (?) BC - 4th ADAusan 5th BC - 1st AD