THE WDB FORMULA AND THE INCENSE TRADE Author(s): Brian Doe Reviewed work(s): Source: Proceedings of the

Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 9, Proceedings of the Twelfth SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at the School of Oriental & African Studies and Institute of Archaeology, London on 10th - 12th July, 1978 (1979), pp. 40-43 Published by: Archaeopress Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223213 . Accessed: 17/10/2012 14:12
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Archaeopress is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies.

http://www.jstor.org


THE WD'B FORMULA AND THE INCENSE TRADE Brian Doe The impressive pre-Islamic South Arabian site at am- diyah1 lies somewhat east of the modern centre of Mukeiras, on the shelf-like plateau to the north of the Dathinah depression. The area is south of the Wadi Bayhn and its linguistic affinities are Qatabanian. On my first visit there I was struck by a pair of finely cut stones on the masonry of a substantial building in the higher part of the site, one engraved with the characters w b and the other with Yf n, in large raised monumental South Arabian script. c The implication of Yf n is not easy to determine, since it means merely 'the lofty, the exalted1, and is frequently encountered in South Arabian texts both as an element in personal and clan names and as the name of a building, wd'b ('Wadd is father1 ?) has been commonlydismissed by the epigraphists with the cursory remark that it seems to be a 'magical formula to ensure the protection of a building1. Since, however, Wadd is a Minaean deity2 it appeared strange to me at first that characteristically he should be invoked in the Qatabanian site of am- diyah. Since then, it has occurred to me that its use may be connected with the incense trade, in which the Minaeans were prominent3. The tentacles of the Minaean trade network in frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon were very widespread4. The wd'b formula is encountered: 1. At Shabwah, the metropolis of Hadramawt, there is ?a stone bearing the inscription wd'b, the house YfniS. Shabwah was the centre for collection of frankincense from the producing areas in Hadramawt and Dhofar; here it was handed over to the long-distance distribution traders. 2. At Hureydah there are two inscriptions, one reading Wd'b^ and the other, rather puzzlingly wdm'bm mssmsm b7 .The site lies at the west end of hi' the Wadi Hadramawt, and is therefore a location where Hadramite -caravans would have assembled before crossing the rather arid tract between here and Shabwah. 3. At Qn' (Greek Cane, modern Husn al-Ghurab) I found a stone inscribed Wd'b. This site was the main port of Hadramawt and almost certainly 'the one to which Dhofari incense was shipped from Samhar, the Hadramite settlement on the Dhofari coast a little east of Sallalah. 4. At Samhar (Greek Moscha, modern Khor Rori) there is a text8 containing the word wd'b, but since it is here not an isolated phrase but incorporated in a continuous context, it has been taken by Jammeas a personal name, and by Beeston9 as a particle plus verb meaning 'and he worked' (Arabic wa-da' aba) . 5. At Timna , the metropolis of Qataban, a Minaean presence is attested by an inscription emanating from a ' kabir of the Minaeans in Timna0'10, and here there is a stone inscribed Wd'b surmounted by a crescent and orb together with an open hand11. 6. Hajar Henu al-Zureyr (anciently Hrbt, and not Hrbt as so often erroneously written owing to confusion with the name of the Wadi Harb in which it lies) is at the west end of the Mablaqah pass, which was "certainly a major trade route; here the usual formula is flanked by an orb, a crescent and two bucrania12. 7. Am- diyah, mentioned above, must have been on a trade route linking the Wadi Bayhan with the coast by way of the Dhira' pass which drops down from the plateau over the escarpment. 8. Dhala, north of Aden, may have been on a route linking the central Yemeni highlands with Aden, or an east-west one running to a Red Sea port,

kl
or both; here there is a stone inscribed Wd'b Yfn, the two words being separated by a cartouche containing the letter h1? 9. Al-Ukhdud, the ancient settlement site of Najran, was an important staging point for South Arabian caravans travelling north, and here there are some half-dozen occurrences of our formula 1I+. 10,11. From Najran the Mesopotamian trade route ran diagonally across the peninsula, through Qaryat Dhat Kahil (now Qaryat al-Faw, near Sulayyil) to Thj15 in the eastern Arabian province of al-Has' . Both places have yielded occurrences of our formula16. This list of places where wd'b occurs suggests that the formula, as. used on buildings, was not simply a fmagicalf protective formula, but signified a major handling post on the incense trade routes. On the specifically other hand, it has also been noted on beads, and in this case it seems clearly intended as a good- luck charm, perhaps used by the traders themselves. it does seem that Wadd was not Apart from the formula under discussion, only the Minaean national deity, but also liad a special connection with the indication of this is the large number aromatic trade. The most noticeable from the two principal Minaean centres of Ma in-Qrnw and of inscriptions y Baraqish-ytl which contain references to fthe perfumes of Wadd1, mt_ wd or mt_ wd17. yt RES 2775 records that two kings of Hadramawt respectively built and of the king consecrated a portion of the wall of Ma in-Qrnw, as allies the authors acknowledge the of MaCn. In RES 2999 from Barqish-rtl overlordship of both the king of Ma in and the king of Qataban. RES 3550 records the construction, on the authority of a mukarrib of Qataban, of the Mablaqah pass-road (see above), and also of various other constructionshow texts These al works, including a byt Wd (temple ? see note 21). or suppliers and the growers the traders tie between the strong and myrrh (Qataban). Hadramawt) of frankincense (mainly South-east of Qataban, in the region around modern Nisab and the Wadi Wusr, lay Awsan. If Pliny's fAusarite myrrh1 did indeed come from Wusr, as suggested by Beeston18, it will come as no surprise to find some references to Wadd there. One of the kings of Awsan, early in the first century A.D., is mentioned as a 'son of Wadd'19; his portrait statuette is dressed in Hellenistic costume, which may indicate trade links with the Mediterranean world. Not far to the south of Wusr is the town of Rahab in a wad! of the same name, where there is a fragmentary inscription of mentioning 'his house Yf ' and something done 'on behalf Wadd'20. In strong contrast to all this is the almost complete absence of in Sabaean material; in spite of the fact that its bulk is such allusions several times as large as that in all the other dialects together. The in cereals and dates, and their Sabaeans were agriculturalists specializing intensive farming methods must have produced a substantial surplus for export. But these commodities were not the concern of Wadd - at least in the South Arabian area21. An exception to the above claim is provided by the use of the Wd'b formula to the west of San a', but there we are getting towards the fringes of the Sabaean domain; and Professor J.Ryckmans has kindly informed me of a single wd'b graffito scratched on a wall at Marib. But the lack of formal inscriptions (of the kind listed in the earlier part of this paper) from Sabaean territory suggests that Saba did not in the aromatics trade. If part of that trade did officially participate Sabaean lands, the only Sabaean interest in it was probably pass through thus contributing to the inflated terminal the exaction of transit tolls, of which Pliny complains. prices

k2
is a small group of inscripAn apparent but not real exception tions mentioning Wadd at Haram, immediately to the west of Macin-Qrnw but two of them are in the local These invoke Wadd alongside deities; classifies Minaean dialect (22) , and even those which the Repertoire The Minaean formulae (23) contain characteristically as 'Sabaean' of Haram was obviously not Sabaean. population connected with the We have seen that aromatics were specifically of the formula Wd!b and also deity Wadd and that the locations WdfbYf Cn appear to define trade routes from the coast of Arabia. They have been found at important handling posts in ancient Hadramawt and Qataban, at the settlement of Nagran al Quryat Dht Khil and at Thajin Arabia. in the area of Gerrh in north-east The formula has not been found in Saba although Ari^imidorus and mentioned the Sabaeans (24), imported aromatics from Ethiopia The formula has also not hinted at a connection with the Gerrhaeans. been found in Main or on the route to the Hejaz, probably for the of Wadd. reason this territory was already under the protection association The formula appears to have signified protective within the incense trading league of Wadd, initiated by Ma in, a which remained in use after the and distribution system of collection of the Minaean northern trade route in the first century B.C. collapse J. Ryckmans , A. F. L. Beeston and I am grateful to Professors W. W. Mller and Dr. P. Costa for helpful comments made at the Seminar, of which account has been taken in this paper.

Lava block, 20 cm. wide, found by B.Doe at Husn al-Ghurb in 1965. The Wd'b inscription has the d and b written as a monogram.

43
NOTES 1 21. Doe, Southern Arabia (London 1971) .169-72, fig. 2 see the Dlos inscription RES 3570 OAAOY0EOY MINAIftNbelonging to Wadd the Minaean god1 . 3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xii. 54, fMinaei ... hi primi commerciumturis fecere, ' maximeque exercent . k Beeston, fPliny!s Gebbanitae1 , Proc.5th Sem. for Arabian Stud. (1972) .4 -7.

5 Brownand Beeston, 'Sculptures and Inscriptions fromShabwaf, JRAS 1954, Plan 2 facing p. 44. 6 The Tombsand Moon-Temple Hureidha (Oxford of CT 56, in Caton-Thompson, 1944). 177. 7 bowls). CT 57, op. cit. 178 (ledge rims of pedestal 8 Jamme 885, in Bi.Or. 24 (1967). 145. 9 10 11 12 'Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography1, Le Muson 88 (1975). 193. VL 9, in M.al-Ghul, 'New Qatabani Inscriptions 2', BSOAS22 (1959) .419. ' Doe, op. cit. Plate 108. Wb d also appears below a text on a house RES 3643 and several tablets inscribed Wd'b.

wall.

13 Ry 372, in G.Ryckmans, 'Inscriptions sudarabes, 8e ser.', Le Muson 62 (1949). 68. li+ Photographs kindly provided by Professor J.Ryckmans. 15 16 17 18 19 20 The site is north-west of the modernoil port of Dhahran. 172 (1963). 9-20. J.P.Mandaville, 'Thj', BASOR references in the RES index. RES 2929, 2951, 2975, 3OOO, 3O28. 'Pliny's Gebbanitae' (see above, note 4).

RES 454 and 3884bis. Doe, op. cit. fig. 20, p. 166. 21 at al- Ula'-Ddn in the northern Hijaz, the byt wd also may have been a fA were marketed; see now Beeston, place where incense comestibles 142-5Minaean Market Code1, BSOAS kl (1978). 22 RES 2742,2743. 23 RES 2740,2745,2749. Typically Minaean is the use of the verb ly in recording the dedication of 'hierodules' (now generally accepted as being the content of these texts, contrary to the intepretation given in RES). 2k S trabo, Geography 16.4.19.