What went on in BC South Arabia?

[Isfendil]

What were the resources that promoted civilization in this region? How much of the historical record do we have? How powerful were these kingdoms?

I know very little about this region and given I want to study Semitic philology, this discomforts me. What did this region have going for it? How did it manage to develop strong yet obscure civilizations? I read that the semitic languages in Ethiopia actually descend from Old South Arabian due to an influx of migrants in the 3rd century BC- what was the relationship between South Arabia and East Africa? I am familiar with the Habesha, and with some information.

Essentially, I am asking for expert information on this region, due to personal interest but also because it might enrich the forum's understanding as a whole.

 

[Riain]

Southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa were the start of the Incense Route, southern Arabia in particular for frankincense and myrrh which were important enough to be specifically named in the Bible alongside gold as gifts to baby Jesus.

 

[Isfendil]

Thus hopefully begins an agreggate of info.

 

[Timaeus]

It's on the crossroads of the Spice Road? I mean, India has two main maritime routes to the Mediterranean, and one of them is down Aden and up through the Hejaz to Egypt.

 

[Salvador79]

What were the resources that promoted civilization in this region? How much of the historical record do we have? How powerful were these kingdoms?

I know very little about this region and given I want to study Semitic philology, this discomforts me. What did this region have going for it? How did it manage to develop strong yet obscure civilizations? I read that the semitic languages in Ethiopia actually descend from Old South Arabian due to an influx of migrants in the 3rd century BC- what was the relationship between South Arabia and East Africa? I am familiar with the Habesha, and with some information.

Essentially, I am asking for expert information on this region, due to personal interest but also because it might enrich the forum's understanding as a whole.

I´m no expert, but I´d try to answer the question: "How did it manage to develop strong yet obscure civilizations?"
It managed to develop strong civilizations (like elsewhere on the planet) through complex water management (see Ma´rib dam), and through its maritime connectedness with other centres of what was the most vibrant part of the world for a few millennia.
The civilizations are obscure for us now because there was no later continuity of important empires. What caused the decline is beyond my knowledge. My guess would be that the quantity of available water was, in comparison with other places in the georegion, finally too small and too unreliable, but that´s almost certainly an oversimplification.

 

[LSCatilina]

As it was said above : you did have a continuity between Horn of Africa and South Arabia human groups on several levels (at least until the Vth century of our era)
The Incense (but also spice, myrrh) road had to pass trough Bab-al-Mandeb, and by land to what is now Yemen.

Incense and trade weren't the only important productive features in Southern Arabia, tough : the whole region had a fairly important agricultural production, not totally unlike how it was in Mesopotamia and Palestine, thanks to a good network of irrigation and water management (Ma'rib Dam is an achievement too often overlooked) : which almost always implies a relatively strong political power, and indeed, the region had a lot in common with Mesopotamia on this regard, with a long list of small-scale kingdoms often involved as senior or junior partners in regional hegemonies.

These hegemonies didn't usually stop their influence at sea, but crossed the Red Sea more than once : Axum did intereacted with Arabia the same way England did with Western Europe.
While differenciation between southern Arabs and their central or northern counterparts certainly happened later than traditionally assumed, it probably came from the level of productive and political development of the South of the peninsula (which doesn't only imply a proper cultural development, but as well a greater porosity to other civilisations influence, notably Persian in this case)

 

[Riain]

Another help would be the regular monsoon winds and their effect on shipping. I read somewhere that there is a small, something like 2 week, window where the winds blow favourably for sailing up the Red Sea, which I imagine would cause a virtual regatta of ships gathering at the mouth to take advantage of this opportunity. This is on top of the regular seasonal monsoon winds driving sailing patterns in the western Indian Ocean.