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Artemidorus Ephesius [Arabia in…]
Artemidorus of Ephesus, Greek geographer. Book VIII of his 'Geography', written ca. 100 BCE, contained a description of the western coastal regions of the Arabian Peninsula.
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Contacts between Assyria and the Arabian tribes took place over a vast area, ranging from the Southern Levant, the Jazīra, and Southern Babylonia to East and South Arabia. Arabs are first mentioned in Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions and correspondence from the 9th century BCE onwards. In addition, iconographic material, namely depictions of military campaigns against Arab tribes from the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BCE; Barnett & Falkner 1962: pl. xiii–xvii, xxiv–xxviii), and Ashurbanipal (668–627 BCE; see below), can be related to passages from written sources. Aribi, a term written with different spellings (Arabi, Aribu, Arubu), referring to the dwellers of the Syrian and North Arabian deserts, was a general designation for nomads, but could also refer to specific tribes in the Southern Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. In the Assyrian mental map, the region where Arabs dwelled represented the southern border of the empire, and was associated with a natural barrier, namely the desert.
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Athirat is an Ancient South Arabian goddess. She was venerated in Qatabān and sporadically in the Jawf region and in Sabaʾ. She has been associated with the homonymous West Semitic goddesses – the Ugaritic Athirat and the Biblical Asherah.