ABSTRACT
Arabs are mentioned in sources from the 850s Bc until the rise of Islam. The preceding penetration of them has shown that they are of quite varying value for the historian. The first reflection is that there are extremely few primary remains from the Arabs themselves or events which involved them. Perhaps the only identifiable ones are the papyrus documents from Ptolemaic Egypt and, possibly, some of the inscriptions from Hatra. There are, of course, artefacts around that may have been used or produced by Arabs; but since Arabs so far are not identifiable archaeologically and no texts are found connecting any artefact with those called Arabs in the texts, the protagonists of our story remain anonymous in the archaeological evidence.
