Mare Erythraeum is an occasional series, dealing with the ethnography and archaeology of the lands bordering the Red Sea and their links with the Indian ocean. This is the sixth volume in this series. The coinage of the South Arabian Peninsula has not been studied in detail since 1922, when G. F. Hill published his catalogue of the British Museum collection. This work is the sixth in this series, and follows on from previous editions which examined coinage from Aksum. South Arabia is an area of study which is of great interest in terms of the historical and cultural significance of the region. The coinage of the Yemen from Pre-Islamic times is an important factor contributing towards the study of the iconography and symbolism of the people of this period, and displays important elements of the continuity and disturbances in the Yemen at this time. Munro-Hay links this information to known historical and archaeological developments in the Yemen in terms of religious, political and cultural factors. Munro-Hay carried out extensive work cataloguing a large number of coins from the site of Shabwa in Hadhramawt, as well as a preliminary survey of coins from Hajar Am-Dhaybiyya. This information, along with the collection of the National Museum at Aden and other various collections, revealed several new types of coin, and form the main body of work for this book. The coinage studied shows itself to be richer than previously thought, and although these new types of coin greatly improve our understanding of the coinage of Southern Arabia, this is still an area where new finds are constantly being made, such as coins of the royal series or from the copper or bronze 'bucranium' series. Because ofthis the numbering system used by Munro-Hay in this study takes into account the expectation of future finds, thereby making this a flexible catalogue of study even if circumstances in this field change radically.
