In memoriam: Serge Cleuziou (1945-2009)

For some thirty years I have trailed the empty quarters of Arabian Prehistory as Serge Cleuziou’s road companion, sharing the odd idea that those desert wastelands had been home to an unique civilization hidden, not in the sands, but in the hearts and minds of the proud restrained folks walking around us. We called it the “Arabian Challenge” and we set out bravely to take up this unfathomable challenge, although none of us looked like Thomas Lawrence, Bertrand Thomas, St John Philby or Wilfred Thesiger. We made no competition to those desert warriors: not only were we not British, but both of us had gone to lousy schools. Now, considering the intensity of the mutual exchanges we have had since 1980, I ought to bear testimony to his work on the Prehistory of Arabia.