Il simulacro assente. Alcuni aspetti esteriori della religiosità nella valle del Jawf Yemenita (I millennio a.C.)

The purpose of this contribution is to observe, through some of the most significant epigraphic and archaeological data, if and how the divinity was represented in the cultic sphere in the Jawf valley during the archaic, the Minaean and part of the post-Minaean periods (1st millennium BC). Although divine anthropomorphic figurations are possibly attested during the archaic phase, no confirmed example of such representations is recognized for the leading divinities since the 7th century BC, which also reflects on the absence of cultic anthropomorphic statuary within South Arabia. This situation is even more marked within the Minaean cultural sphere, as here dedicatory inscriptions mentioning votive statuettes are not attested, a practice that is by contrast very common in Sabaʾ and Qatabān, where such artifacts represent the devotee. The three archaeologically-investigated main cellae from the Jawfite temples will finally help to briefly observe the few remaining traces about the location of a possible divine simulacrum.