It was in 1937 that we heard in Kuwait that a large stone bearing a curious inscription had been brought by a Badawi from Hasa. After it had passed through several hands I eventually acquired the stone, and sent a description of it and a copy of the inscription to Mr. Sidney Smith at the British Museum (see Plate I No. 1). The inscription, which is in a South Arabian script, was translated as follows1 by Professor G. Ryckmans of Louvain:

“Monument et sepulture de ‘Aws-hani-’lat, fils de Sa'id, fils de Ghassanat, du clan de Yad'ub de la tribu de Šawdab (ŠWDB).”

The Badawi who brought the stone to Kuwait said that he had found it at Thaj, a small village twenty-five miles S.W. of Sarrar in central Hasa.