Shabwa

Deep, in the very bowels of the former country of incense (Hadramaut state), was Shabwa. This ancient city was located in the area of ​​the modern village of Shabwa, at the exit of Wadi Mashara ( English Mashara ) to the eastern edge of the Ramlat es Sabatayn desert in Yemen , about 850 m above sea level. Shabwa today is an archaeological site in Yemen ), located 300 km east-northeast of Sanaa and about 100 km north of the city of Atak , the modern administrative center of Shabwa governorate .

Shabwa is surrounded by deserts and waterless mountains dotted with wild gorges. In ancient times, they served her as a defense against the invasion of enemies. About eighty temples found shelter inside its walls. It was possible to enter Shabwa and leave it only through one gate. Incense trade apparently began in the 2nd millennium BC. e. ^[one]

Today, Shabwa can be quickly reached from Aden via an asphalt highway. ^[one]

Somewhere at the turn of the VIII and VII centuries BC. e. there is a migration of residents, new residents settled on the territory of Hadramaut. Most likely they were called Sabaeans . They brought with them new methods of construction, decoration and ceramic products. These aliens settled in existing settlements and cities, slowly mixing with the local population.

At the beginning of the VII century BC e. the city was destroyed by Saba Mukarib . The entry in the Sabaean texts shows the importance of this victory for the Sabais.

Shabwa became the residence of the kings of Hadramaut at the end of the 7th century BC. e. or at the beginning of the VI century BC. e. Then some kings received the title of mukarrib ( English mukarrib ), indicating great power.

In the 4th century, the Khimarites took possession of the Hadramaut state and included it in the Khimyarite kingdom .

Shabwa gained the importance of an important shopping center only at the beginning of our era, when the Romans took control of the sea route to India and thereby jeopardized the incense trade in coastal areas, which was conducted through Aden . Therefore, from now on, aromatic resins had to be delivered to the port of Kanu (today it is the city of Bir Ali in Yemen ), and from there to Shabwa. Incense from Somalia and Ethiopia also went to Cana . If the heads of the camel caravans deviated from the established route, they would face the death penalty. ^[1] In the desert, only organized caravans were allowed to travel along strictly marked paths. Any deviation from these rules (unregistered caravans, left roads and smuggling) was considered the most serious crime and was punishable by death. Caravans were a vital source for Shabwa. Therefore, only one gate was set aside to create a caravan.

The wealth and importance of Shabwa lay in the position of the city, which was an important gathering place and organization of trade caravans to cross the great desert of Rub al-Khali . The caravan participants had to pay one tenth of the value of the goods, which was given to the priests of the city temples in the name of the main goddess Xiin ( Horv. Seen ) (Moon). There were 60 religious temples in Shabwa, and the city was the administrative and religious center of the ancient state of Hadramaut.

The population was obliged to bring the entire annual collection of aromatic resins to the temples of Shabwa, and no one was allowed to export a single piece of resin outside the country. However, there have probably been many attempts to violate this ban. For example, Indian merchants sought to buy pitches at their collection sites. If these violations were publicized, then those who sold resin were punished with death. It is said that, only after the priest seized a tenth of the entire crop of aromatic resins “for God”, that is, in favor of the state, the king allowed the free sale of this product. Then merchants could buy and sell sacred goods. ^[one]

People tamed camels around 1300 BC. e. Camels were the basis of the flourishing trade of the time.

Caravans of three thousand camels from Shabwa, often stretching for thirty kilometers, departed once or twice a year, shortly after the end of the rains. Their path lay through seventy settlements, including through Marib , Nedzh , Mecca , Jeddah , Medina , Petra and others, to Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea . Such a transition lasted an average of at least seventy days. ^[one]

Over time, the incense trade declined, the splendor of South Arab cities faded. And only rare caravans continued to walk along the old roads laid long before the discovery of incense, transporting the salt necessary for life. In the immediate vicinity of Shabwa there are salt mines, the same mines are near Marib . It can be assumed that salt was transported from here to all parts of South Arabia. ^[one]

“Slowly and inexorably lay the ever-moving sand on the ancient temples and palaces of Arabia,” the chronicler reports. However, the glorious past has not disappeared from the memory of people, it continues to live in legends and tales. The marble slabs of the temples now serve as the foundations of clay huts, and once fertile, irrigated fields turned into a desert. ^[one]

In Europe, they heard that the city of Shabwa was in ancient times, and at the end of the 30s of our century a real stir began around the disappeared city in an effort to discover the secrets of Shabwa. ^[one]

“The Mystery of Shobua - among the Bedouins of South Arabia, in the depths of the Sabean kingdom” - this book was published in Berlin in 1935 and brought success to the author Hans Helfritz, although it is still unclear whether he really visited Shabwa. ^[one]

At the same time, the Englishwoman Freya Stark went to the "southern gate of Arabia." To find Shabwa was her most secret desire. “Shabwa from me,” she wrote, “is not further than three days' journey, and there are no obstacles that would prevent me from approaching her, but a blow of fate (the fever laid her on a hospital bed in Wadi Hadramaut, from where she was sent to Aden by plane . - D. Sh.) Made Shabwa unattainable for me ... Only in dreams did I wander along its deserted royal street. ” ^[one]

Shabwa's discovery took place in 1936, and it is believed that his honor belongs to John Philby, a man who said to himself that he was “the greatest of the heirs of Arabia” - the words that Philby ordered to carve on his tombstone. He spent forty years in Arabia, was an agent of the British crown, a representative of Ford's automobile company and an oil company, as well as a personal adviser and biographer to Ibn Saud. Philby explained to the king, whose financial situation left much to be desired (at that time he still did not have any profit from oil, the Americans were just beginning search operations), that the flow of pilgrims fell sharply due to the requirement of the International Health Association to establish quarantine for all pilgrims traveling to Mecca and Medina, and that this order can be circumvented if pilgrims enter the country through the south coast. Philby was tasked with finding this path as soon as possible. The root causes of his journey to Arabia have long been forgotten, but remember that he unexpectedly discovered Shabwa. He believed, however, that Shabwa was the most miserable of all the daughters of Saba and that there were never eighty temples there. But the excavations that someday the young republic will certainly begin, will show who was right - Philby or the Arab explorer Ahmed Fakhri, who was convinced that no other country in the East could make a greater contribution to the disclosure of the history of the ancient world than Yemen, when excavations of the ruins in its hills will begin. ^[one]

Since 1975, French archaeologists led by Jacqueline Pyrenes have been working in Chabwa. They managed to find the ruins of an ancient city.

In 1976-1981, excavations were carried out in the southeast, in the area of ​​building 41, and a stratigraphic sequence was established. Thus, in accordance with radiocarbon dating, archaeologists have discovered 14 rich layers from the XVI century BC. e. until the 4th century AD e., shortly after the final destruction of the city of Himyar. It is striking that between the 3rd layer (about 1300 BC) and the 5th layer (after imported ceramics: VI century BC) is in the same layer, which compared to the settlement continuity from the Bronze Age speaking in the historical period. The heyday of the Shabwa falls from the 4th layer to the 9th layer (6th century BC. To 2 century BC. E.). In the III century century A.D. e. Shabwa was conquered by Saba.

Numerous archaeological excavations of the team in Shabwa for all time revealed artifacts. Some of the excavated artifacts are currently in the city museum, in the nearby town of Ataq.

The best preserved buildings:

• The ruins of the royal palace in the eastern part of the city
• Part of the city walls
• North gate
• The ruins of ancient temples

Reconstructing the appearance of the city

The ruins of ancient Shabwa consist of an outer and inner city. The outer city stretches from north to south for a distance of at least one kilometer, and its maximum length from east to west is about 900 m. Located in the south (inside the outer city), the inner city has a length of about 500 m from southwest to northeast the maximum length from northwest to southeast is 365 m. At least 3.35 km of the outer city wall and about 1.53 km of the inner city wall were destroyed by the wadi . The central part of the city was located on an area of ​​about 0.15 km².

The inner city intersected in the middle of the main road directed from north to south, starting at the northwest gate, the largest gate of the city. At the entrance to the city, right behind the gate on the right, was the Royal Palace with an area of ​​1600 m². The eastern facade of the palace looked onto the main road. The main road ended at a significant, but poorly preserved temple complex located on the southern outskirts. How the rest of the road network was connected to the main road has not yet been established. Obviously, the remaining roads (streets) were perpendicular or parallel to the main road, but so far only a few intersections have been excavated by archaeologists. As more space in close proximity to roads and in public places and gardens and small farms are preserved. Most of the buildings were simple rectangular in shape and each floor had an area of ​​at least about 100 m². Some buildings stand out for their size and complex layout - they were probably designed for the upper class.

The outer city, that is, the place between the two walls, has never been completely built and populated. The only significant building of the outer city of the Temple (building number 114) is in the southwest and the al-Chajar stronghold in the southeast.

Outside the fortifications, in 1987 several buildings of raw brick were excavated.

• Gusterin P.V. Cities of the Arab East. - M .: East-West, 2007. - 352 p. - (Encyclopedic reference book). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-478-00729-4
• (Verschiedene Autoren): Fouilles de Shabwa , in: Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie , Tome 68, Fasc. 1-4. Geuthner, Paris 1991 S.1-462