On the Trail From the Sky:
Roads Point to a Lost City
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Guided by ancient maps and sharp-eyed surveys from space,
archeologists and explorers have discovered a lost city deep in the sands
of Arabia, and they are virtually sure it is Ubar, the fabled entrep™t
of the rich frankincense trade thousands of years ago.
Leaders of the expedition reported that excavations so far
have uncovered 'the ruins of eight towers and adjoining walls and deposits
of pottery dating to Roman times and as far back as 2,000 B.C., perhaps
earlier. They said the location and size of the site and evidence of a
violent destruction appeared to match historical accounts of Ubar's rise
and fall.
The discovery, made in November, comes after decades of exploration
and study of historical documents. Much research has tied Ubar to the
city Iram in the Koran and to Omanum Emporium on the maps of Claudius
Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer of the second century A.D. He referred
to the people of the region as Ubarites.
Empty Quarter Ruins
But it was not until scientists began painstaking analysis
of satellite images that they spotted geological traces that led them
to the site. Images made with invisible, near-infrared light showed evidence
of ancient caravan routes, undetectable on the ground, leading to and
from one particular area.
The archeologists now believe these tracks are the routes
camels once traversed carrying frankincense across the burning sands to
Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, thence to markets in Alexandria and
Rome. They could even be the tracks followed by the Wise Men on their
way to the manger in Bethlehem with gifts, according to tradition of gold,
frankincense and myrrh.
"After four days of digging, it was clear we had hit pay
dirt," said George R. Hedges, a Los Angeles lawyer with a background in
classical archeology, who helped organize the expedition. Only after further
excavation and investigation did members of the expedition disclose their
find in interviews
The ruins of one of the eight towers archeologists have discovered at an Arabian Peninsula site thought to be the fabled city of Ubar.
