900 BC Writing Tablet found in Mexico

The saddest part of the story is that this was found whilst digging material for a road. There are simply too many relics in Mexico to be properly covered by the Archaeological Service (INAH)

Around 2000 BC to 100 AD or so there was a rich culture in the southern part of the Arabian penninsula. It was rich because frakensense and other incense came from the southern face of the mountain range in the southwest of arabia and had to be shipped north by caravan, through the arabian desert, to the mediterranean where the incense was used in offerings to the gods by greeks, romans, jews, and persians. The profit was staggering, and kingdoms along the caravan trail became rich with caravan tax. These kingdoms built huge cities and irrigated large amounts of land. The kingdoms were highly developed, it is widely believed the famous queen of sheba came from one of these kingdoms named saba (literally "south"). The reason I tell this story is, because this is located in Yemen, no one can get to the sites to do any work. The local warlords kill them or chase them off. So much history just laying hidden and remains a mysteria for no good reason. What a waste.

Agreed....

"Villagers in the Mexican state of Veracruz discovered the tablet sometime before 1999, while quarrying an ancient Olmec mound for road-building material"

I have been reliably informed that less than 10% of 'Old Master' paintings have survived the ravages of recent centuries. What to speak of documents? Let us hope the digging stopped for a brief time. We are good at trampling our herritage underfoot, without a care.

I haven't yet taken the opportunity to register--or at least what I tried the other day didn't take, but I wish to respond to your thread. Short and sweet, if you need this kind of information and documentation, contact FARMS (Foundation for Ancient something or other) at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. They will be able to put you in touch with scholarly resources intimately and deeply involved in this line of research. Also, Yemen and surrounding area are not completely closed to outside research--at least not by the locals. Most opposition comes from foreign influence in their major University. Just attended a very interesting series of classes concerning this subject matter at aforementioned institution during their Education Week program in August. Mostly attended by LDS people and highly informative in middleast antiquity research. The 1200 BC people you are interested in are known in the LDS community (which has written records of their immigration) as "Jaredites" after one of their early kings. If you are serious in your interest, you should investigate their materials and make your own assessment.

I have investigated materials and developed my own assessment. There were many kingdoms that existed in Yemen, not just one. They were sprinkled along the caravan trail. Also, there are ruins and evidence of vast irrigation long before 1200 BC. If you want information to educate yourself, enter Yemen and archaeology or Yemen and prehistory into google scholar, there are plenty of articles availible. You can also check out the books "Sheba: through the desert in search of the legendary queen" by Nicholas Clapp, "Arabia Felix" by Jean-Francois Breton and Albert Lafarge, and a personal favorite "Arabian Sands" by Wilfred Thesiger.

The term Jaredites comes from the Book of Mormon. I have seen very little evidence of this term or these people outside of this narrative.

Yikes!

I have a co-worker like that.

I know I'll bet that the Olmecs and the Egyptians swapped stories back then.

Hey, maybe that's why they found compounds from the Coca plant in Egyptian mummies.

Likes pieces to the puzzle. It's all coming together now.

Sorry, it was getting too serious

Speaking of the Queen of Sheba and Yemen, there is a world leading geologist in Canada who traced gold from soil samples, that matched the signature of gold from Sheba's gold artifacts, back to the Gold mines that supplied Sheba's gold. The discovery of the mines took place in 1999 and I remember when Dr. Charles Fipke said in 1996 that he was going to attempt to find the source of Sheba's gold - amazing how this guy can find a needle in a haystack. He is also responsible for finding the first diamond mine in northern Canada that ultimately has a value of over $20 billion. His mining company Cantex (public-CD.V) that is exploring in Nevada and Yemen apparently has already found deposits in Yemen valued over $30 billion in Copper/Nickel/Colbalt and Gold and likely Platinum and the stock trades at Cdn$0.08, and his second company Metalex (public-MTX.V Cdn$0.48) is soon going to prove up Canada's 6th diamond mine in N.Ontario, mine value by next year will probably only be $1 billion, so he will have to make some more discoveries. In finding his first diamond mine he traced his soil samples for 600 miles before finding the source, by interepreting glacial movements and utilizing continuous sampling--following the thread. Amazing what one can do if you understand the science and develop a methodology. For anyone interested there is a book on Amazon that documents his stories on his quest for Sheba's gold.