Archaeology and epigraphy at Tayma (Saudi Arabia)

Archaeological excavations by a Saudi‐Arabian‐German cooperation in the oasis of Tayma revealed stratified from the 2nd and 1st millennia BC until the Islamic period at a site marked by its specific environmentel setting. Political and cultural contacts of regional and supra‐regional scale are attested by archaeological and epigraphic sources from the centre of the city and its surrounding walls: pottery and sculpture as well as Aramaic and Taymanitic inscriptions. A newly discovered stele with a Mesopotamian royal representation and a Babylonian cuneiform text is attributed to the last Babylonian king Nabonidus who took residence in Tayma for ten years of his region.