Klaus Schippmann, who teaches archaeology at the University of Göttingen, has participated in several archaeological excavations in southern Arabia. As he states in the Introduction to the book, “very little is known on the subject” of the history of ancient southern Arabia, and he outlines the reasons for this. His aim is to present to a broad audience, including Orientalists, historians of ancient history not concerned primarily with this region, archaeology students, and the general reader, “a consolidated overview of the current state of knowledge” on topics related to the history and culture of South Arabia. The book was originally published in German in 1998; corrections and updating were introduced in the English edition.