And assuming for a moment this explanation, I return for a last dig at the
desert necropolises. If the Sheban people fled from their shaken mountains
they must have fled into the desert. In such circumstances they may have
perished there in immense numbers and been consigned to these myriads of
graves, obviously graded in size to suit the age and importance of the folk to
be buried. Only the apparently complete absence of human relics operates
against this theory. But, if that fails, what is left? Pliny tells us that the
Shebans paid but scant courtesy to their dead and east their corpses out on
the urban rubbish heaps. Is it possible that they compensated such discourtesy
by erecting these memorials far away in the desert to house the lost
souls of their departed? Is it possible that these tombs were cenotaphs,
associated with their ancient religious ceremonies? This again is a question
that cannot yet be answered, but I think I can claim that my journey to Sheba
has raised a number of problems, which the spade may one day help to solve
and which are in any case the business of expert archaeologists rather than
of common explorers.