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With a view to understanding the dynamics of ancient trade and agrobiodiversity, archaeobotanical remains provide a means of tracing the trajectories of certain agricultural commodities. A prime example is cotton in Arabia, a plant that is nonnative but has been found in raw seed and processed textile form at Hegra and Dadan, in the region of al-'Ulā, north-western Saudi Arabia -- sites of critical importance given their role in the trans-Arabian trading routes during Antiquity. Here, we demonstrate that the measurement of strontium isotopes from pre-cleaned archaeological cotton is methodologically sound and is an informative addition to the study of ancient plant/textile provenance, in this case, putting forward evidence for local production of cotton in oasis agrosystems and possible external supply. The presence of locally-grown cotton at these sites from the late 1st c. BCE-mid 6th c. CE is significant as it demonstrates that cotton cultivation in Arabia was a Pre-Islamic socio-technical feat, while imported cotton highlights the dynamism of trade at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two inscriptions that shed more light on the history of contacts between Hellenistic Egypt, the Roman Empire and the South Arabian kingdoms between the second century BCE and the mid‐second century CE are in the focus of this research. One inscription mentions foreign gifts for King Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Tryphon; the other ‒ a Greek inscription from Ẓafār ‒ seems to be the gift for either the king of Ḥimyar or the Roman colony in Ẓafār. The first inscription points to the existence of direct diplomatic contacts between these regions in the second century BCE. The second inscription is linked with the Latin text from the Farasān archipelago by viewing the reference in the first line to legio II Traiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]