Editing Sheba (section)

== Sources ==
{{See also|Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions}}
The Sabaic language was written down in the Sabaic script as early as the 11th or 10th centuries BCE.{{Sfn|Stein|2020|p=338}} The Sabaic tradition has left behind a sizable epigraphic record. Of the 12,000 corresponding [[Ancient South Arabian inscriptions]], 6,500 are in Sabaic. The region first sees a continuous record of epigraphic documentation in the 8th century BCE, which lasts until the 9th century CE, long after the fall of the Sabaean kingdom and covering a time range of about a millennium and a half and constituting the main source of information about the Sabaeans.{{Sfn|Nebes|2023|p=303}} South Arabian civilization may be the only civilization that can be reconstructed from epigraphic evidence.{{Sfn|Avanzini|2016|p=13}}

External information about the Sabaeans comes first from [[Akkadian Cuneiform|Akkadian cuneiform]] texts starting in the 8th century BCE. Less important are brief reports from the [[Bible]] about correspondence between [[Solomon]] and the [[Queen of Sheba]]. While the story is of debatable historicity, knowledge of the Sabaeans as merchant peoples indicates that some level of trade between the regions was underway in this time. After the campaigns of [[Alexander the Great]], South Arabia became a hub of trade routes linking the broader geopolitical realm with India. As such, information about the region begins to appear among Greco-Roman observers and information becomes more concrete. The most important accounts about South Arabia are from [[Eratosthenes]], [[Strabo]], [[Theophrastus]], [[Pliny the Elder]], an anonymous first-century seafarming manual called the ''[[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]]'' concerning the politics and topography of South Arabian coasts, the ''Ecclesiastical History'' by [[Philostorgius]], and [[Procopius]].{{Sfn|Nebes|2023|pp=308–311}}