This week, the Heritage Authority announced the discovery of a number of southern Musnad inscriptions, 3 rings and a bronze bull’s head dating back to pre-Islamic times, as part of the excavations that the Heritage Authority teams are conducting at the Al-Ukhdood site in the Najran region.
The authority stated that the southern Musnad inscriptions discovered at the Al-Ukhdood site in Najran are of a memorial nature, and the most important and most prominent of them is a large inscription written on a granite stone, consisting of one line, with a length of 230 centimeters, and the length of its letters reaches 32 centimeters, making it the longest Musnad inscription found. In that area, and belongs to one of the residents of the Al-Ukhdood site, and his name is (Wahb Ail bin Maqen), it is mentioned through this inscription that he worked in watering his house and perhaps his palace.
“The head of the bull was one of the prevailing and common things among the kingdoms of southern Arabia, and it symbolized strength and fertility, and it was the most important and prominent symbol among the Sabeans, Ma’inids, and Qatabanids.”
Bull head
Three gold rings with butterfly-shaped decorations on top were also discovered, all of the same shape and size, in addition to a bull’s head made of bronze with traces of oxidation, which is currently being restored, according to the Saudi Press Agency, “SPA”.
The authority added that many pottery jars of various sizes and sizes were also found at the Al-Ukhdood site, in addition to an important archaeological discovery of a pottery vessel dating back to the third century BC.
These discoveries came during the archaeological excavation project carried out by the Commission at the archaeological site of Al-Okhdood in the Najran region for the eleventh season, with the participation of a group of Saudi experts, to uncover new scientific evidence and data that help understand the cultural sequence that the Al-Okhdood archaeological site in Najran region played since early historical times.
