Archaeology Magazine - September 1955 - 62

part of the mkrb period at the end of
the ninth century or the beginning of
the eighth. In Jamme's opinion, a Greek
influenceon the South Arabic alphabet,
and especiallyan influencein the sixth
century B.c., is not acceptable, despite
the material identity of several letters.
The last South Arabian question
discussedwas that of the so-called ritual hunt, a theory presented in 1948
by A. F. L. Beeston on the basis of
eight inscriptions. Although it is possible that the ritual hunt actually was a
part of South Arabian culture, its existencehas not yet been proved by any
inscription.
Turning to research in ancient North
Arabian studies, progress has been
slow but steady. The important Dedanite and Lihyaniteinscriptionshave been
subjected to an intensive re-examination by Werner Caskel of Cologne.As
a result, he proposes placing the kingdom of Dedan and its successor, the
kingdom of Lihyan, after the collapse
of Minaean power, an event which he
dates ca. 160 B.c., although South
Arabic specialists date it ca. 125 B.c.
(Jacques Ryckmans) or 35 B.c. (Albright). Since the Nabataeans were in
occupation of Dedan-Lihyan by 9 b.c.,
and probably for a short time previously, it does not seem possibleto compress both kingdoms, Dedan and Lih* yan, into the brief period between the
Minaean downfall and the Nabataean
conquest of Lihyan. Caskel attempts to
get around the difficultyby the theory
that only some of the Lihyanite kings
reignedbefore the Nabataean conquest;
the rest come after the downfall of Nabataean power in A.D.105.He finds support for his theory in the fact that the
Lihyanite script exhibits two clearly
definedphases. But it is doubtful if the
differencesbetween the two forms of
Lihyanitescript are of such a character
as to make it necessary to postulate a
real break in the continuity of Lihyanite history. Caskel's whole chronological scheme depends too largely on an
elaborate classificationof the inscriptions accordingto the type of script employed, a classificationwith which few
probably will be inclined to agree. A
much more reliable reconstruction of
early North Arabian history is to be
found in the essay entitled "Dedan"
which W. F. Albright contributed to
the Festschrift in honor of Professor
Albrecht Alt.
The first comprehensivetreatment of
206

the Thamudic texts has come from the
hands of a Belgian scholar, van den
Branden. Some years ago Winnett
drew attention to the existence of five
distinct Thamudic scripts. Van den
Branden demonstrates the various
stages which the primitive script went
through before these five varieties came
into being. His alphabetic tables, however, according to Winnett, are not to
be trusted implicitly, and the translations which he proposes of many
Thamudic texts, especiallyof the longer
and more important ones, frequently
fail to inspire confidence.A new collection of Thamudic material was published in 1952.
In the Safaitic field the most important achievementhas been the gathering up and republishing of all the
material available up to 1943. Since
then two hundred more texts have been
published,together with a report on the
first excavation of a Safaite burial.
Newly found inscriptionsshow that the
oldest Safaitic inscriptions date from
the first century B.c. How long the
script continued in use must remain
uncertain until more unequivocal evidence is forthcoming.
This Symposiumreflects, as it were,
a third wave of interest in pre-Islamic
Arabia. First came the descriptions of
the travelers; then the studies of the
philologicalexplorers of Beduin mores
and poetry accompanied the early investigators of South Arabian antiquities. Now a concerted attack on the
problems of the pre-Islamic conditions
of the Peninsula is under way. Already
during the last fifteen or twenty years
archaeologistsin South Arabia, epigraphers in Central Arabia and linguists
throughout the Peninsula have considerably enlarged the bounds of our
knowledge. At long last a historical
and cultural synthesis appears, at least
for certain regions, to come within our
reach. The present Symposiumhas had
the double merit of tallying the advances made and pointing out which
gaps most urgently need filling. Archaeologicalresearch in the South, the
organization of our knowledge of the
languages and dialects throughout the
Peninsula,the study of the political and
cultural interrelations of the powers
that controlled the area in the preIslamic period or periods, and ultimately a fresh presentation and interpretation of the currents of civilization
- these are the main tasks which

emerge from the statements of the participants in this Symposium as urgent
requirementsof further progress. Let it
not be forgotten that the urgency of
work in an area such as the Arabian
Peninsula is increased by the necessity
for scholarship to avail itself of the
usually short-lived opportunitieswhich
the ever-shiftingpolitical constellations
will afford it.

Salvage Archaeology in the Upper
Missouri Basin
At least a partial picture of the cultures of Indians living in the northern
Missouri Basin, both in prehistoric
times and in recent centuries, is being
pieced together thanks to archaeological salvage operations. These operations are surveys and excavations carried out under the River Basins Surveys
project of the Smithsonian Institution
and various Federal and State cooperating agencies.A large number of archaeological sites destined to be inundated as a result of the Federal
Government's river development program has been investigated.
One of these sites is in the basin of
the Angostura Reservoir on the Cheyenne River in South Dakota. Here
lived a people, presumed to be of the
same physical type as present-day
Plains Indians, whose life as hunters is
attested by a characteristic javelin
point known as the Angostura point.
According to Carbon 14 tests the site
was occupied about 7,000 yeàrs ago.
The typical Angostura point was not
found here associated.with identifiable
animal bones, although in other places
it was found with bones of extant animals. A related type of javelin point
with a somewhat different shape was
found at other sites in associationwith
bones of an extinct variety of bison,
but unfortunately the date of these
sites could not be ascertainedby Carbon
14 methods. This is only one sample of
what salvage archaeology may be expected to recover.
Another story reconstructedthrough
the work of the River Basins Surveys
is that obtained from excavating village sites near Pierre, South Dakota,
which will soon be floodedby the Oahe
Dam. The story covers a period of two
hundred years, the end of vwhichis signaled by the appearance of European
artifacts at the time of the arrival of

Archaeology Magazine - September 1955

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September 1955