Editor: Jérémie Schiettecatte
| Ancient name | ʾfqn |
| Country | Yemen |
| Geographical area | Dhamār |
| Governorate | Dhamār |
| Kingdom | Ḥimyar |
| Coordinates | Latitude: 14° 28' 8" Longitude: 44° 35' 2" |
| Coordinates accuracy | assumed |
| Type of site | Modern site with reemployed inscriptions or artefacts |
| Deities | (ʿṯtr) S²rqn |
| Structures | Dwelling (indeterminate) Light hydraulic structure (ex. canal, well) Fortress Rock inscriptions |
| Language | Sabaic |
| Location and toponomy | Location Khirbat Afîq / Afq is a village located in the south-east of the Dhamâr plain, 21 km east-south-east of Dhamâr, 5 km north of Hakir. Toponymy It may be the ancient ʾfqn mentioned in RES 3946/2 as a hgr. This identification on the basis of similar names of place is uncertain. Al-Hamdânî mentions a citadel, maṣnaʿat Ufayq, in the province of Dhamâr that may be identified to this village. To the south west of the village, the ruins of an inhabited area on a rocky promontory may correspond to the citadel mentioned by al-Hamdânî. |
| History of research | Late 2000s: visit and description by Kh. Numan (2012: 18). |
| General description | Five inscriptions were copied on site by Kh. Numan (2012:18, 132). One of them mentions the building of two cisterns around the 2nd-3rd century BC, as well as the presence of a house (bytn ḏ-ʾqs²ṭ). Two additional inscriptions preserved in the Ṣanʿâʾ University Museum (A-20-263 and A-20-274) come from this site. One of them mentions the name of a deity called S²rqn (probably ʿṯtr S²rqn). |
| Chronology | Three inscriptions from this site may be dated according to their palaeography: - A-20-263 is dated 5th-2nd century BC - A-20-274 and Kh-Afq 1 are dated to the 2nd-3rd century AD. |
| north of Ṣunʿa (Unknown) |
| north of Maṣnaʿat Mariya (S¹mʿn) |
| Epigraphs
in CSAI Objects in CSAI |
| al-Garoo 1986: 229-230 | al-Garoo, Asmahan 1986. Les antiquités du Yémen dans l'œuvre de al-Hamdânī. (PhD, Université Paris I). |
| al-Ḥiwālī 1967 a: 161 | al-Ḥiwālī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Akwaʿ 1967. Kitāb al-Iklīl li-lisān al-Yaman abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī, al-ǧuzʾ al-ṯānī. Cairo. |
| al-Ḥiwālī 1967 b: 153 | al-Ḥiwālī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Akwaʿ 1967. Kitāb al-Iklīl li-lisān al-Yaman abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī, al-ǧuzʾ al-ṯāmin. Cairo. |
| al-Ḥiwālī 1974: 226 | al-Ḥiwālī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Akwaʿ 1974. Ṣifa ǧazirat al-ʿArab, taʾlīf Lisān al-Yaman al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad al-Hamdānī. Riyāḍ: Manšūrāt Dār al-Yamāma li-l-baḥṯ wa-l-taraǧama wa-l-našr. |
| al-Ḫaṭīb 1948: vol. 10: 52 | al-Khaṭīb, Muḥibb ad-Dīn 1948. al-Iklīl min aḫbār al-Yaman w-ansāb Ḥimyar, taṣnīf lisān al-Yaman Abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī, al-kitāb al-ʿāshir. Cairo. |
| Noman 2012: 18, 132 | Noman, Khaldon 2012. A Study of south Arabian Inscriptions from the region of Dhamār (Yemen). (PhD, Università di Pisa). 2016/05/10; https://etd.adm.unipi.it/theses/available/etd-08112012-151251/. |