A common pre-Islamic Arabian name ('byt') found in both North and South Arabian inscriptions, Abyatha is of interest in the context of the early history of the Emirates because of its occurrence on a number of coins found at Mileiha and al-Dur where it is written in South Arabian letters. The appearance of a name on coinage generally signifies that the coinage in question was minted by that person. In the case of Abyatha we have coins modelled on that of Alexander the Great showing, on the obverse, a head of Heracles, facing right, wearing the pelt of the Nemean lion and, on the reverse, a seated figure, modelled on that of Zeus, who sits on a throne with his left arm curled around a staff and a reed held between the thumb and forefinger in his mouth. On the largest denominations (i.e. the tetradrachms and drachms) the name Abyatha is written vertically in the area behind the seated figure, whereas on the smaller ones (obols) only the first letter of the name, the South Arabian alif, appears as a monogram. Based upon the presence of tetradrachms of Abyatha in several coin hoards at Mektepini and Gordion in Turkey, this coinage was probably minted in the later third century BC Unfortunately, we do not know where Abyatha actually lived and reigned, though it is likely to have been somewhere in Arabia.