(December 22, 2012 at 5:26 pm)The_Germans_are_coming Wrote: Might be interesting for those who are interested in history and the history of religion.
This article is about a recent find in Yemen:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/worl...74048.html
So much nonsense, so little time. First off the idea of the Arabian Peninsula meaning anything in ancient times is total BS. That today Saudi exists is a modern accident. In ancient times there were only two areas of interest the eastern coast aligned with India and Persia and the western coast which was also the eastern coast of the Red Sea. They were entirely separate regions. I don't know if it is just me or the entire world that is ignorant of the eastern coast but the Red Sea Adjacent part is reasonably well known. It is known from ancient Egypt, Greek and Roman references but so far as I can find no one in the field has written any definitive material on the subject.
Yemen for example was the source of extremely valuable funerary spices. I have come across one reference saying it was ruled by the Old Kingdom of Egypt which was back before there was anything of interest in the Mediterranean. There was a partial canal from the Red Sea inland to the Nile and that was the focus of the kingdom. As late as Mohamed this is a Koran reference to some of his followers escaping to Egypt where they were sheltered showing the relationship persisted for thousands of years. One could look at the Red Sea as a miniature Mediterranean with constant trade relationships.
The wealth of Yemen got it its freedom. Egypt, Greece and Rome all tried to conquer it more than once but the attempts failed around the region of Mecca and Medina the region of the people profiting from transporting the spices. This is exactly Mohamed territory, strongly influenced by trade wealth. The region was wealthy enough to stay free. The region lost its influence with Christianity and simple funerals decimated its wealth.
You can insert a lot more here. Google up Arabia Felix, Arabia Petra and Arabia Deserta for more on the ancient view of geography. The idea of calling it a peninsula today is only barely technically correct. The political layout of Saudi today, other than Riyadh, is split into the two coasts.
