Objective
Geographically the project embraces the territory of the Republic of Yemen, and some adjacent areas, i.e. the whole cultural political area of ancient South Arabian civilisation. Chronologocally the project is concentrated on the early 1st millennium BC to mid-6th century AD. The concept of the pantheon headed by the "astral Triad", which was predominant in South Arabian studies from the twenties of the last century, is now completely rejected. Many results of recent archaeological and epigraphic discoveries connected with the polytheism of ancient Yemen have not been examined and arranged in a new integral picture yet. Among the lacunae in our knowledge to be filled in we can mention the elucidation of the functions of deities, the analysis of all the available data about the worshippers of a certain temple or a group of temples, the identification of the objects of religious cult with the terms attested in inscriptions, etc. The multidisciplinary character of the project envisages the close cooperation of archaeologists, including the specialists in pre-history, epigraphists, linguists and ethnologists.
The importance of the research programme consists in studying one of the principal spheres of life of the pre-Islamic South Arabian civilisation, in finding out the Arabian roots of Islam and in evaluating the consequences of the conversion of South Arabia in monotheism. The research programme is based on the close cooperation between national teams and their leaders. Both Italian teams investigate the Qatabanian variety of South Arabian polytheism. The leaders of the Coordinating Italian 1 team and the Russian 2 team will reconstruct the cult of Siyan, the national god of Hadramawt, in the colony of Sumhuram in Dhofar. The French team studies the religious situation in Ma'in and in the whole region of al-Djawf and the problem of the "unidentified monotheism". The German team is responsible for Sabaean polytheism. The Russian 1 team concentrates its efforts on the religion of ancient Hadramawt (with the Russian 2 team), on the church law in late Himyar and on finding out the remnants of South Arabian polytheism in modern Yemen. The Russian 2 team investigates elements of religious cult in Neolithic and Bronze Age Yemen as well as religious terminology of ancient South Arabia.
The principal objectives of the project are the following:
- To study the polytheistic religion of pre-Islamic South Arabia as a system of beliefs, rites and archaeological objects paying special attention to its local varieties and the stages in its development from the early 1st millennium BC to the mid-4th century AD.
- To investigate the cult and ritual of South Arabian polytheism and to propose a new reconstruction of its pantheon.
- To compare this polytheistic religion with its more primitive predecessors in the Neolithic and Bronze Age epochs and to trace its remnants in modern Yemen.
- To reconsider the introduction of monotheism in South Arabia in the late 4thCEN
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
Data not availableCoordinator
PISA
Italy