ABSTRACT
THE most recent ofthe geological changes recounted in Chapter II (to which this and the following chapters are linked in historical sequence) occurred well within historic times. For example, as has been told in the narrative, the pre-Islamic temple at Huqqa, north of San'a, was probably overwhelmed by a volcanic eruption as late as the 3rd Century A.D. l Man had appeared on the scene millenniums before this. Little can be said here about his prehistoric beginnings in the south-western corner of the peninsula; for, though a fine opening to this study has been made in South Arabia as a whole, II its scene has lain largely in the Hadhramaut, several hundred miles to the east.
