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The founding of Islam is quite an important date in Arabian archeology, because it was illegal to excavate pre-Islamic sites until the 1960s and even today ther

• tomrod 4y ago
  Really? Wasn't Tutankhamun;s unearthing from the early 1900s?
  • ggm 4y ago
    Egypt was run as a french language, but british protectorate. It did not achieve full independence until after the suez crisis of 1956. It has a sizable coptic minority. (French because the egyptian rulers considered french modernising and much as Ataturk adopted western dress and alphabet, the Egyptians favoured french language to "modernise" their state) Technically, Egypt was a secular state until 1980 when Islam became the official state religion. Saudi Arabia was part of the Turkish Empire, until after WW1. The modern Saudi State, and islamic rules on Archeology did not apply across much of the earler 20th century, or was simply disregarded by western archeologists. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Jordan and Lebanon have extensive archeological sites which clearly pre-date the rise of Islam.
  • AlotOfReading 4y ago
    Tutankhamun was buried in Egypt, not Arabia. Egyptian archaeology is considered its own, separate specialty with a different history and different rules / norms. Take this as the opinion of someone who isn't an Arabian archaeologist, but researchers working in the peninsula have long had to deal with the sensitive issue of pre-islamic sites. Getting access is still a bit difficult today (especially Yemen) and most of the leading researchers are careful to be politically well-connected and avoid stepping on too many toes.