The task of the South Arabian project “Pilot-3D-Digitizing of Rare Ancient South Arabian Squeezes, 19th Century Glaser Collection” based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences is to digitize the Glaser squeezes currently kept in the archive of the academy. The inscriptions from which these squeezes were taken are in the Sabaic, Qatabānic, Minaic, and Ḥaḍramitic languages, ranging in date from the early seventh century BCE to the sixth century CE, and in length from one-line texts containing only a single name to the 136-line inscription of King ʾAbrehā from the dam at Mārib. The inscriptions cover a wide range of themes, recording such things as dedications to deities, construction and irrigation projects, and military campaigns. Regrettably, the conditions in which the squeezes were kept over the years in the National Library’s and Academy’s archive have been far from optimal, and many have been damaged by water and mildew, or else pressed flat by the weight of other squeezes piled on top.
Eduard Glaser:
The approximately 2850 South Arabian squeezes – 700 of them are scanned within this project - are the work of the Austrian Semitist and explorer Eduard Glaser (1855-1908). Glaser undertook four expeditions, which led him to the region northwest of Ṣanʿāʾ, the region west and southwest of Ṣanʿāʾ, and the area between Ṣanʿāʾ and Mārib and from Ṣanʿāʾ to Aden.
