Late Himyarite Vulture Reliefs

During field research in Yemen, two reliefs came to light which depict vultures. The meaning of the Semitic nashr/nishr is discussed in relation to these reliefs. They show a hitherto unknown Artistic style in South Arabia which dates round 500 CE

Zafar, Capital of Himyar, Fifth Preliminary Report, February–March 2005

In February-March 2005, the joint University of Heidelberg-Yemen team conducted a season of mapping Zafār. Major tasks included the compilation of place-names of the different fields in the area. In this way, we obtain an instrument with which to identify fossil pre-Arabic place-names. Zafār is not the largest archaeological site in the Yemen, but may well be the second largest one after Mārib. The rectification of a Quickbird image documents in concrete fashion the soil erosion and other environmental changes in and around the ancient city. Vulture reliefs from the surrounding area show a new style which appears to date to the 6th century, to judge from related images in Europe. Our recording is just keeping abreast of destruction mostly from building operations

Archaeological recording of Heidelberg University in Oman, April & December 2014, May 2015

The Ministry of Heritage and culture generously allowed me to tender a new archaeological project. They had conducted plan excavation at important sites at Omani Dibba (large Bronze Age corridor tombs) and at al-Saffah (Early Iron Age (EIA) foundry site), the latter some 45 km east of the border to Abu Dhabi emirate in Mintiqah al-Dhahirah. The object of my visit (16.‒20.04.2014) was to do first recording of the fascinating finds from al-Saffah. Of the numerous (667 registered) finds mostly in copper alloy from that site, I photographed, drew, and otherwise recorded 143, in order to judge the amount of time needed for the cataloguing. By May 2015, some 220 artefacts had been documented. Maurizio Tosi (Muscat) and Francesco Genchi (Bari) kindly provided me the site report and a first database of the finds. In 2014 the ministry had one third of the metal finds restored, which now can be drawn, photographed and otherwise studied. The site is of EIA date, to judge from the finds and radiocarbon dates. I took the opportunity together with ministry inspectors to visit the undocumented Samad Late Iron Age (LIA) settlement sites of al-ʿAtqiyah/J. Ṣunsunah and al-ʿAtqiyah/J. Nejd. Such are quite rare. A further visit from 03.‒13.12.2014 allowed a long-desired opportunity to begin documenting other such sites at Ibrāʾ I0052; Wadi Maḥram/Qariyat al-Saiḥ; al-Moyassar M34, M4304; Samad al-Shān S01; S07, SX; Ṭīwī/al-Jurayf tw0002. Four selected LIA sites are described. Negar Abdali (Heidelberg) recorded key al-Saffah artefacts with a 3D scanner curated in the new National Museum in Muscat. This project goes by the name of the Heidelberg University ‒ Ministry of Heritage and Culture Virtual Museum Project. Most interesting is the occurrence of the finds in what appears to be a single-period context. Never before have we had a context like this one. Artefacts of EIA and a few of pre EIA date evidently were taken as a source for metal production. Numerous new artefact classes occurred. Moreover, a large selection of miniature votive weapons occurred

The Hasat Bani Salt in the al-Zahirah Province of the Sultanate of Oman

The Hasat Bani Salt is South-eastern Arabia's largest and most important rock art monument. Often referred to as Coleman's Rock, it is named after the geologist who, by word of mouth, made it known in expatriate circles in the 1980s. An improvement of its documentation allows a better idea regarding its dating and meaning

Zafar, Capital of Himyar, Eighth Preliminary Report, February–March 2009

Work begun in 2004 continued on the spacious himyarite so-called Stone Building, on the south-western flank of the Husn Raydan mountain. In the ruined city, this is the first fairly intact building to come to light, an ashlar structure surrounding a stone-paved courtyard. Goals included locating the exterior walls, the investigation immediately to the north and the clearing of the courtyard. This year, we cleared the south-eastern part of the courtyard. Our project emphasizes the little-known latter part of late antiquity in a field of study but one hardly developed in South Arabia

Recently Discovered Bronze Bowls from ʻAmlah, al-Ẓāhirah Province and the Late Pre-Islamic

In 1997 rescue operations in ʻAmlah, al-Ẓāhirah Province, brought to light four copper alloy bowls the decoration of which sheds light on the late Pre Islamic Period in this little explored part of south eastern Arabia. Here a site belonging to the Northern Late Pre Islamic Culture (NLPC), as known till now only from the United Arab Emirates, came to light unexpectedly. This find raises the question of the distribution and character of the different late Pre Islamic Assemblages in the region. At this still very early stage of research the distributions of the NLPC and Samad Assemblage appear not to be mutually exclusive, but rather mix with each other. The Sharqīyah is archaeologically the best researched part of the country. Here and in adjacent Dakhlīyah up to 47 sites of the Samad Assemblage have been tallied. The distribution and character of neighbouring late Pre Islamic Assemblages is sketchy. Whereas the new bowls reveal the art of the NLPC, for the Samad Assemblage still hardly any evidence exists. Least well known is the material culture of late Pre Islamic Dhofar

Zafar, Capital of Himyar, Ninth Preliminary Report, September-October 2010

Die letzte Geländekampagne der Expedition der Universität Heidelberg fand unter schwierigen Bedingungen statt. Ziel war es die Keramik abschließend zu dokumentieren, sowie das Steingebäude zu konsolidieren und überdachen