Every site is identified by its
modern name. For the sites in South Arabia we have adopted the spelling of the modern toponyms to be found in Chr. Robin and U. Brunner,
Map of Ancient Yemen, Münich, 1997.
For other toponyms we followed the guidelines in
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies: “Variations in the spelling of many place names can now be found on-line. Geonames, a worldwide geographical database with a search function, browsable maps, and downloadable data files, is available free on www.geonames.org/ though it is not yet always useful to identify archaeological sites. Another useful website is Google Earth (This can be downloaded from
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earth/index.html). Diphthongs instead of long vowels should not be used: e.g. Mansūr,
not Mansour.” (cit.
http://www.thebfsa.org/content/psas-guidelines, Consultation date: 31/1/2013).
The compilation of the site cards is still in progress, so there may be some variation in the amount of information provided on different cards.
Site Information
The description of the site will include, if known, the following information:
- Ancient name. If the ancient name is known, it is recorded as found in the original sources, transliterated without vocalization.
- Country. This field contains the modern name of the country where the site is located.
- Region. This field contains the name of the geographical region where the site is located.
The following additional information may also be given:
- Kingdom
- Coordinates
- General description
- Chronology
- Classical sources
- Identification
- Travelers
- Archaeological missions
Monuments
Some cards contain sections with a description of monuments of interest located at the same site, accompanied by a picture gallery.
Map
If the coordinates are known and have been recorded in the database, the location of the site on Google Map is provided.
Related Sites
In order to facilitate the identification of minor sites, their relative location with respect to better-known sites is provided (near, north of, southwest of, etc). By the same token, the card for a major site may list the modern names of surrounding, lesser known sites.
Related Material
This section provides access to all the epigraph and object cards linked to the site.
Bibliography
The bibliography lists the relevant publications for the study of the site.