South Arabian Collection

The South Arabian collection of the MEDINA project's online archive includes the artifacts from the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale "Giuseppe Tucci" in Rome: nearly 40 inscriptions, most of them Sabaic and dating back to the first centuries AD, and 60 anepigraphic objects, among which plaques, incense burners, offering tables, stelae with human figure in relief, seals and sculptures in the round. Within the Collection, three thematic paths are also offered : "Portraits from ancient Yemen" [http://medina.humnet.unipi.it/index.php?id=175&prjId=5&corId=0&colId=32&navId=0&group=0&subgroup=0&rS=yes]; "The religious world of the South Arabian people" [http://medina.humnet.unipi.it/index.php?id=175&prjId=5&corId=0&colId=30&navId=0&group=0&subgroup=0&rS=yes]; "Writing and decoration in Ancient South Arabia" [http://medina.humnet.unipi.it/index.php?id=175&prjId=5&corId=0&colId=31&navId=0&group=0&subgroup=0&rS=yes]. MEDINA is a Mediterranean network funded by the European Union within the ENPI - CBCMed (European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument - Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean Sea Basin) programme. The main objective of MEDINA is to enhance awareness, both in the local and in the international community, of the often unjustly neglected Ancient Near East cultural heritage, as a necessary step for its future preservation. In this view, three relevant archaeological and epigraphic collections related to the Phoenician, the Nabataean and the South-Arabian civilizations have been catalogued. They are presently preserved into the National Museum of Beirut, the Museum of Jordanian Heritage of the Yarmouk University and the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale "Giuseppe Tucci" in Rome.