The joint archaeological and epigraphic project, which has been funded by the German Research Foundation from 2007 until 2010, aims to answer questions about the organisation and spatial design of the city, the chronology and the characteristics of its material culture and history, the interrelationships between the city and its surroundings, and the supra-regional contacts. The site also offers the unique opportunity to establish a sound chronological framework for the development of the Sabaean Community from its formation in the late second millennium BC until its end in the 6th century AD. The archaeological part of the research project was carried out by the Oriental Department of the German Archaeological Institute, the epigraphic part by the department of Semitic Philology and Islamic Studies of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena.

The first three-year phase of the epigraphic subproject focused on the collection and evaluation of all the Sabaic inscriptions known from Marib to date, both in terms of structure and in terms of content. The subject of this work were one thousand texts and fragments in the Sabaic language, about half of which are votive inscriptions. The texts, which were scattered and published in very different qualities, were to be prepared in the project in a uniform form in text, translation and short commentary for the work on archaeological, historical and cultural-historical questions (in print: Anne Multhoff, Die Inschriften aus Mārib. Katalog, Übersetzung und Kommentar, Rahden, Westfalen. 2020-21).

Due to tribal conflicts over the site, excavations had to be suspended in 2010 and could not be continued until now.