Private collection, UK

Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919). "The Queen of Sheba's Visit to King Solomon", c. 1882. Detail, watercolour study.

Although there is some archaeological evidence that suggests that the South Arabian kingdoms were emerging around the tenth century BC, no archaeological evidence for overland or marine trade links between the Levant and Southern Arabia has been discovered for this period. The descriptions in the Bible of Solomon's temple and palace and his fleet of merchant ships gives the impression that Jerusalem was a prosperous and international trading center during this period. However, the archaeological evidence suggests that Jerusalem was not an international trading center at the time. Solomon{A146}s temple and royal palace in Jerusalem have not been discovered and the very existence of the Judean kingdom in 950 BC is still open to debate. There are archaeologists working in the Levant who challenge the reality of Solomon as an historical character and the existence of the United Monarchy as it is represented in the Biblical narratives. There are scholars who suggest that frankincense and myrrh were not even used by the Israelites before the seventh century BC. The anachronistic elements in the Biblical story may be explained by the fact that the passage was not written down in the tenth century BC. The story was probably written during or after the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC, when the South Arabian incense trade was very well established.

	1 Kings 10 (King James Version)
	1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions (cont'd...)

Regardless of whether the Queen of Sheba could have visited King Solomon in the tenth century BC, there are Assyrian sources which suggest that the Sabaeans were already trading in the Near East by the eighth century BC. The first mention in the historical texts of the Sabaeans and the goods that were involved in the caravan trade is in an Assyrian text, dating to the mid-eighth century BC, which describes the seizure of a camel caravan by the governor of Suhu and Mari on the middle Euphrates. One hundred people from Tayma and Saba accompanied the caravan of two hundred camels, which carried wool, iron, alabaster and blue-purple dyed wool, and they were apprehended for the non-payment of tolls. With the exception of alabaster, these are not products that are typical of Southern Arabia. Purple wool, dyed with murex shells, is a product that is usually associated with the Phoenicians. Iron is not a known export of Southern Arabia. There were, however, known sources of iron in Anatolia and the Levant. It has been suggested that the traders from Saba and Tayma (an important way station on the incense route) were exchanging their incense for Phoenician textiles, iron, etc. in the Levant and then were travelling eastwards to exchange some of these goods with the Assyrians.

We also know from the eighth century, Assyrian texts of Sargon II (721-705 BC) and Sennacherib (704-681 BC) that "tributes" were arriving from the Sabaeans, in the form of aromatic substances, gold and precious stones. During a campaign in the year 716 BC, Sargon II, received "gold in the form of dust, precious stones, ivory, ebony-seeds, all kinds of aromatic substances, horses and camels from It'amar the Sabaean." In a foundation inscription commemorating the building of a temple at Ashur, we are told that Sennacherib scattered a gift of precious stones and fine spices from Karibilu, king of Saba', on the foundations of the temple. It'amar and Karibilu are royal South Arabian names, and these individuals have been associated with two Sabaean kings that reigned during this period. As the Sabaeans were outside the reach of the Assyrian armies, these gifts to the Assyrian kings are more likely to have been trade tariffs or bribes to guarantee smooth trading.

The South Arabian spice trade in classical times

	Holy Qu'ran
	[27:15] We bestowed knowledge on David and Solomon. The two said: 'Praise be to God who has exalted us above many of His believing servants.' (cont'd...)

Surprising little is known about the spice trade, especially in its earliest phases. Despite an increasing number of excavations in Yemen, our major source of information still comes from the classical authors. The classical writers thought that South Arabia was fortunate because of the frankincense and myrrh and the wide variety of other spices that were thought to grow in this land. In Greek, South Arabia was called Arabia Eudaimon, meaning "Arabia the Blessed," and in Latin it was called Arabia Felix, meaning "Happy Arabia." In about 450 BC Herodotus wrote, "This is the one country in the world where frankincense grows, and myrrh, and cassia, and cinnamon and ladanum ... the whole country exhales a more than earthly fragrance." It was Alexander the Great's boyhood ambition to conquer the frankincense-growing tribes, but he died (in 323 BC) before he was able to take a naval expedition to Arabia Felix. The Romans also wanted to conquer this fortunate land but were unsuccessful in their overland campaign to the region in 25 BC. The Roman Emperor Augustus sent Aelius Gallus, the Prefect of Egypt, but his army was forced to withdraw for lack of water after only a six-day siege at Marib. From the first century AD, the Romans began to regularly access the land of frankincense and myrrh via the Red Sea, which led to the growth of South Arabian ports, such as Muza and Qana.

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek marine navigation manual written by an Alexandrian merchant around 40-70 AD, states, "All the frankincense grown in the land is brought to Cane (Qana), as if to a warehouse, by camel as well as by rafts of a local type made of leather bags, and by boats." Recently, Russian archaeologists excavating at the port city of Qana on the Gulf of Aden have found large quantities of incense, sometimes in palm baskets, in the remains of large, multi-roomed storage structures on the sea front. On the next phase of the route, camel caravans transported the incense from Qana to Shabwa, the capital of the Hadramawt. Pliny the Elder reported that the temple priests at Shabwa took a portion of each load before it was sold to merchants, originally all Minaeans, for onward conveyance. If the Qana merchants avoided the main trade route to Shabwa to escape paying their temple dues, they risked severe punishment and even death. From Shabwa, the incense was taken to Tamna, the capital of Qataban. After paying taxes to the king of Qataban, the caravans headed northward to Ma'in and Najran. Near Najran the route divided and the caravans went east to Gerrha and then on to Mesopotamia or travelled north to Petra and Gaza on the Levantine coast. According to Pliny there were 65 stages between Tamna' and Gaza. The total journey from Shabwa was around 2,750 km and it would have taken a camel caravan two to three months to reach its destination. According to Pliny, all along the route the merchants,

keep on paying, at one place for water, at another for fodder, or the charges for lodging at the halts, and the various octrois (duties): so that expenses mount up to 688 denarii per camel before the Mediterranean coast is reached; and then again payment is made to the customs officers of our (Roman) empire.