Ancient History of Yemen - Archaeology and The Prehistory of Yemen

Archaeology and The Prehistory of Yemen

The study of South Arabian prehistory is still at the beginning, although sites are known going back to the Palaeolithic. There are tumuli and megalithic enclosures dating back to the Neolithic. Immediately before the historical kingdoms in 2500 two Bronze Age cultures go out of North Yemen and from the coast of the Indian Ocean. In the middle of the second millennium BCE the first important urban centers appear in the coastal area, among which are the sites of Sabir and Ma'laybah. So far it has not been adequately explained whether the Old South Arabian Civilization of Yemen was a direct continuation from the Bronze Age, or if at the beginning of the Iron Age groups of people began wandering south from Palestine or North Arabia, as is partly conjectured.