A SOUTH ARABIAN ALABASTER LIDDED "BEEHIVE" JAR

More than seventy "beehive" vessels have been published, most coming from the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, although some have been found in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The shape has traditionally been considered to have contained "perfumed oils, aromatic gum resins or semi-solid unguents." One inscribed example (p. 56 in Simpson, Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality, Treasures from the British Museum), confirms that these were "used in the incense trade, and that they may even be regarded as branded packaging for one of the most desirable commodities of ancient Arabia."