Timna (Yemen)
Coordinates: 15 ° 1 ' N , 45 ° 48' E
Timna ( Old South Arabic Tmnʿ Arabic تمنع, DMG Timna ) was the capital of the Qataban Empire in Yemen and is located 240 km southeast of Sanaa , about 100 km south of Ma'rib and 320 km northeast (as the crow flies) of Aden . The route from Ma'rib to Timna is part of the old caravan route along the Frankincense Route and the eastern border of the eastern foothills of the Ramlat es-Sayhad . Another ancient site is Hajar bin Humayd on the left on the almost 20 km long route to the south of Baihan al-Kisab .
history
Timna originated in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. BC and was the political center of the Qataban Empire, which had existed since the end of the 8th century BC. Is documented in writing. After the conquest of Qataban by Hadramaut around 150 AD, Timna was abandoned. The remaining state of Qataban around Ghat Ghayl, 15 km south of Timna, was able to hold its own for a few more decades, but this too was finally conquered by Hadramaut. Timna was at the exit of Wadi Baihan, which formed the agricultural background of the city. In Timna, however, incense was mainly traded in stages, as the trade routes led through the city. The market regime of King Shahr Hilal is a sign of the prosperous and complex trade .
History of exploration
In the 1950s, the US archaeologist Wendell Phillips began to excavate the buried place and uncovered the southern city gate with its huge columns of the Quataban temple. Individual inscriptions and other parts of houses could be secured photographically. Today a large part of the discoveries petered out again, as hardly any funds were made available for the preservation of traces.
About two kilometers outside the city hill was the necropolis of the Timnaer on Haid bin Akil . The ancient burial site is also the site of the remains of a temple in honor of the god Anbay .
Wendell Phillips had several meters of sand removed from the presumed site (at Haid bin Akil ). The first antique objects quickly came to light. In a deeper layer at the south gate, the researchers found high degrees of combustion, which indicated a huge conflagration. Inside were handmade items such as pottery shards, small chain beads, inscribed stone fragments and fragments of iron and bronze. Under another unmixed layer of ash they became aware of other objects such as stone inscriptions and pieces of alabaster with rows of carved ibex heads. The research team registered that Timna must have been exposed to a fire disaster. The expedition leader and expert on Semitic linguistic research , WF Albright , evaluated various inscriptions on site and was able to identify the most powerful ruler of Qataban, Shahr Yigal Yuhargib II (reign around 75 BC), from the row of kings mentioned on them . The further excavations proceeded profoundly, however overshadowed by the increasing illnesses of the expedition members. A deputy supervisor then discovered a green bronze lion with a rider, which he presented to Phillips personally on his military cot, contrary to archaeological convention, at best to call a research member to the site and not to lend a hand himself. This find (see picture on the right) depicts a bronze lion. On its back sits a fat little cupid who is holding a broken chain in his left hand that led to the lion's neck. In his right hand he is holding a fragment of a bow. Albright was able to date the inscription on the base of the statue in such a way that the earliest date of creation was 150 BC. Chr. Came into consideration. It was a replica of a Hellenistic original, although it was clear that the Greeks had not made such lion statues before this date. This also helped to determine the reign of Yuhargib II, because the find was in the house of Yafasch , which could clearly only be assigned to this king. On the same day a reversed second bronze lion was found together with Cupid (worse condition).
literature
- Richard LeBaron Bowen, Frank P. Albright: Archaeological discoveries in South Arabia (= Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man . Band 2 ). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1958.
- Ray L. Cleveland: An Ancient South Arabian necropolis. Objects from the second campaign, 1951, in the Timna ' cemetery (= Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man . Band 4 ). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1965.
- Horst Kopp (Ed.): Geography of Yemen , Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden, 2005, ISBN 3-89500-500-2
- Wendell Phillips , Kataba and Saba. Discovery of the lost kingdoms on the biblical spice routes of Arabia. S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin et al. 1955.
- Nikolaus Rhodokanakis: The inscriptions on the wall of Kohlan-Timna , (= series of publications: Session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Philosophical-Historical Class ), Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna 1924.
Individual evidence
- ↑ see map; In: Kopp (see lit.)
- ↑ Gerhard Heck, Manfred Wöbcke: Arabian Peninsula . books.google.nl
- ↑ Maria Höfner , South Arabia in Dietz Otto Edzard, Gods and Myths in the Middle East ( Dictionary of Mythology online ).
- ↑ a b c Wendell Phillips, Kataba and Saba, pp. 83–93 and 64 f. (see lit.)