Article table of contents: S
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With its textual corpus comprising approximately 6000 inscriptions dating back from the 8th century BCE to the 6th century CE, Sabaic is the best documented and the longest attested language within the Ancient South Arabian (ASA) language family. On account of the political and cultural reputation of the tribe of Sabaʾ, Sabaic was used as a written language in southern Arabia and beyond for many centuries and this, combined with the more varied repertoire of available documents, is the reason why Sabaic has been studied much more extensively than its sister languages.
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Sabaʾ, tribe settled in the central lowlands of Yemen, which evolved into the Sabaean kingdom in the early 1st mill. BCE. Its centre was the oasis of Maʾrib. The constituents of Sabaean identity were the use of Sabaic, a Semitic language written in the South Semitic alphabet, and the worshipping of the god Almaqah, tutelary deity of its pantheon.
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Locations referred to as sacred places are located in peculiar natural environments where rituals and cultual activities were performed in Southern Arabia from the early 1st mill. BCE to the 4th cent. CE.
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The setting up and veneration of stones is a feature of the ancient religious traditions of Arabia, the Levant and the Mediterranean.
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See Rituals
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The chief god of the ancient oasis of Taymāʾ, and also worshipped at Dūma (Dūmat al-Jandal, al-Jawf), and possibly at Qurayya in the same area.
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Salūt, near Bisya in the ad-Dakhiliya Governorate, central Oman, is a site occupied from the Bronze Age until the Late Islamic Period. Three main areas have been excavated: the castle (Ḥuṣn Salūt), the village (Qaryat Salūt), and the necropolis in the plain. Salūt reached its zenith during the Iron Age (1300–300 BCE). A necropolis located in the plain to the east of Ḥuṣn Salūt bears witness to the continued occupation of the area in the following centuries (300 BCE–200 CE).