The Himyarites are in the News Again

 A piece by Spiegel Online about new archaeological work at Zafar in Yemen which has unearthed some clearly Christian depictions is worth reading. Unfortunately it lapses into the gee-whiz revelation that there were Christian and Jewish Kingdoms in South Arabia before the coming of Islam, which was breaking news 1500 years ago but pretty well known among anyone familiar with early Islamic history. I doubt that the archaeologists in question presented that part of the story as a revelation,but it was news to the journalist writing the story. We last discussed the Himyaritic kingdom and related states in this blog back in February, so you may want to read that post along with the Spiegel article,