Editor: Jérémie Schiettecatte
| Ancient name | Ytrm |
| Country | Yemen |
| Geographical area | Dhamār |
| Governorate | Dhamār |
| Kingdom | Ḥimyar |
| Coordinates | Latitude: 14° 35' 46.8" Longitude: 44° 41' 27.3" |
| Coordinates accuracy | certain |
| Type of site | Modern site with reemployed inscriptions or artefacts |
| Tribe | Tribe: S²ddm Yhqbḍ Lineage: Ḏrḥn Rdmm Lineage: S¹mhs¹mʿ |
| Deities | ʿṯtr S²rqn ʿṯtr ḏ-Ẓhr Ys¹r ʿṯtr ḏ-ʾlmm ḏt-Bʿdn ḏt-Ḥmym Wd ʾb |
| Structures | Dwelling (indeterminate) Dwelling (concentrated) Rampart Rock inscriptions |
| Language | Sabaic |
| Location and toponomy | Al-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 research | 1985: visit and description by A. Avanzini. |
| General description | The 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. |
| Chronology | Four 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. |
| Epigraphs
in CSAI Objects in CSAI |
| Avanzini 1985: 85-93 | Avanzini, 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: 139 | Robin, 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. |