DASI

digital archive for the study of pre-islamic arabian inscriptions

Editor: Jérémie Schiettecatte


SITE INFORMATION

Ancient nameYtrm
CountryYemen
Geographical areaDhamār
GovernorateDhamār
KingdomḤimyar
CoordinatesLatitude: 14° 35' 46.8"    Longitude: 44° 41' 27.3"    
Coordinates accuracycertain
Type of siteModern site with reemployed inscriptions or artefacts
TribeTribe: S²ddm Yhqbḍ
Lineage: Ḏrḥn Rdmm
Lineage: S¹mhs¹mʿ
Deitiesʿṯtr S²rqn
ʿṯtr ḏ-Ẓhr Ys¹r
ʿṯtr ḏ-ʾlmm
ḏt-Bʿdn
ḏt-Ḥmym
Wd ʾb
StructuresDwelling (indeterminate)
Dwelling (concentrated)
Rampart
Rock inscriptions
LanguageSabaic
Location and toponomyAl-Aqmâr is located 31 km east of Dhamâr and 25 km north west of Radaʿ. Today's village extends at the foot of an escarpment.
An inscription discovered on site, Av. Aqmar 1, mentions hgr Ytrm, “the city of Ytrm”, probably the ancient name of the site (see Robin 1987: 139).
History of research1985: visit and description by A. Avanzini.
General descriptionThe ancient site is only documented in the ancient inscriptions reused in al-Aqmâr.
In the 1st cent. AD, a large domestic building, the house Yfʿm, was built (Av. Aqmar 2).
In the 2nd century, Av. Aqmar 1 mentions the construction or repairing of a tower-house, Ryʿm.
At that time, the site was under the authority of the ḥimyarite king and its vassals, the qayls of the tribe of S²ddm.
Two deities, ʿṯtr ḏ-ʾlmm and ʿṯtr ḏ-Ẓhr Ys¹r were worshipped in Baynûn and al-Aqmâr only and can be considered as the deities of the tribe of S²ddm.
ChronologyFour inscriptions from the site are dated according to their palaeography between the 1st-3rd centuries CE. One of them, Av. Aqmar 1, is dated to the kingdom of Ys¹rm Yhṣdq, king of Sabaʾ and dhû-Raydân and of his sons S²mr and Lʿzm, in 130 AD.

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RELATED MATERIAL

Epigraphs in CSAI
Objects in CSAI

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Avanzini 1985: 85-93Avanzini, Alessandra 1985. Problemi storici della regione di al-Ḥadāʾ nel periodo preislamico e nuove iscrizioni. Pages 53-115 in Pelio Fronzaroli (ed.). Studi Yemeniti. (Quaderni di semitistica, 14). Florence: Istituto di linguistica e di lingue orientali, Università di Firenze.
Robin 1987 c: 139Robin, Christian J. 1987. L'inscription Ir 40 de Bayt Ḍabʿân et la tribu Ḏmry. Appendice: Les inscriptions Gl 1192, Gl 1197 et Gr 27. Pages 113-157 in Christian J. Robin and Muḥammad ʿA. Bāfaqīh (eds). Ṣayhadica. Recherches sur les inscriptions de l'Arabie préislamique offertes par ses collègues au professeur A.F. L. Beeston. (Arabie préislamique, 1). Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner.