WHERE do you find a gift for the pharaoh who has it all? The ancient Egyptians knew: suitably lavish goods were available in Punt. In this mysterious, far-flung land you could obtain all the gold, frankincense and myrrh a pharaoh might desire. To top it off, you could even throw in a baboon or two.
We have long known of the existence of Punt, a trading partner of the ancient Egyptians that provided them with expensive jewels, spices, ivory and animals. But hieroglyphic texts are frustratingly vague regarding the whereabouts of this extraordinary land, which means the hunt for Punt is one of the unsolved puzzles of Egyptology. Now, finally, we may be zeroing in on an exact location. Surprisingly, the clinching evidence isn鈥檛 some newly discovered ancient map. Instead, it comes 鈥� quite literally 鈥� from the mouth of one of Punt鈥檚 baboons.
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The ancient Egyptians first began sailing to Punt about 4500 years ago, visiting the land infrequently for 1300 years. In Punt, the Egyptians could trade their grain, linen and other goods for aromatics, hardwoods and all manner of exotic products that were difficult or impossible to find in Egypt. 鈥淪ome scholars describe the Egypt-Punt trade relationship as the origin of international peaceful commerce,鈥� says Nathaniel Dominy at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 a big deal.鈥�
But there is another side to Punt. Consider , an approximately 4000-year-old ancient Egyptian text that has been described as the world鈥檚 earliest work of fiction. The story tells of a sailor marooned on a fantasy island. There, he meets a gigantic serpent that identifies itself as the Ruler of Punt. Ultimately the sailor is rescued, but not before the snake showers him with gifts (including baboons) and tells him: 鈥淵ou shall never more see this isle; it shall be changed into waves.鈥�
The story, and other poetic references to Punt, tell us the ancient Egyptians saw it as a mystical or otherworldy place. 鈥淧unt was also referred to as 鈥榞od鈥檚 land鈥�, an imaginary landscape between this world and the realm of the divine,鈥� says Peter Dorman at the University of Chicago. There may be a few reasons for this. Punt was an important source of the fragrant incense that the Egyptians viewed as crucial for communicating with their gods in temple rituals, says Dorman. But the Egyptians rarely visited the land because it was so far away. 鈥淭hose who knew about it did not necessarily have any direct information about it,鈥� says Kathryn Bard at Boston University in Massachusetts. Over time, 鈥渋t seems it became almost a mythological entity鈥�, she says.
In the modern-day hunt for Punt, archaeologists have turned to the evidence left by the ancient Egyptians. The best documented expedition to Punt occurred around 1470 BC during the reign of female pharaoh Hatshepsut, with the Egyptians chronicling the trip in a series of pictorial reliefs carved onto the walls of a temple near what is now Luxor, Egypt.
They show the Egyptians sailing to Punt and bringing back goods that they then present to Hatshepsut. Punt is depicted as an exotic land of lush palms, dotted with distinctive mushroom-shaped buildings raised on stilts and accessed using ladders.
Eagle-eyed scholars noted that the Egyptian boats lacked keels, implying they would have been prone to rolling in rough waters. In the late 1990s, this led to the idea that the boats were unsuitable for seafaring. Instead, the argument went, the Egyptians must have reached Punt by sailing up the Nile, suggesting , almost 4000 kilometres south of Egypt.
The idea has since fallen out of favour, and for good reason. Between 2001 and 2011, Bard and her late colleague Rodolfo Fattovich conducted excavations at Mersa Gawasis on Egypt鈥檚 Red Sea coast, a site already thought to have been an ancient port. In 2005, the pair found a stone slab that had been erected there to commemorate a voyage undertaken at the request of Pharaoh Amenemhat III in the 19th century BC. The text on the stone read: 鈥淗is majesty caused me to go to lead the High Steward Senbef to Punt because I am pleasing to the heart of his majesty.鈥�
It basically tells us that this is the port from which they would send their ships to Punt, says Dominy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 mind-blowing. You can鈥檛 get better evidence than this.鈥�
Or perhaps you can, because elsewhere at the site, Bard and Fattovich鈥檚 team unearthed 43 wooden cargo boxes dating to the reign of Amenemhat III鈥檚 successor, Amenemhat IV. 鈥淥n two of them were inscriptions in hieroglyphs stating they contained wonderful things of Punt,鈥� says Bard. The boxes were empty, but she suspects they might once have contained incense.
Bard says the discoveries at Mersa Gawasis have been described as 鈥減utting a nail into the coffin of the idea that Punt was reached via a riverine route鈥�. But as astonishing as the finds are, they still don鈥檛 give us an exact location for Punt 鈥� in theory, it could have been anywhere on either the African or Arabian coast of the Red Sea.
About 20 years ago, another clue emerged, in the form of an inscription on the wall of an . The inscription tells how the Egyptians had recently been attacked by the Kushites, who we know lived to the south of Egypt in what is now Sudan. Significantly, the Kushites had enlisted help from their neighbours. According to the inscription: 鈥淰ile Kush鈥� stirred up the tribes of Wawat, the island-dwellers of Khenthennefer [and] Punt.鈥�
鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 good evidence that Punt was on the African side of the Red Sea,鈥� says Bard.
What鈥檚 more, for the past few decades Italian archaeologists have been excavating at a site near Kassala, close to the modern border between Sudan and Eritrea. Bard says they have uncovered plenty of evidence of ancient Egyptian pottery fragments and other trade goods, making it a plausible location for Punt.
Because of this evidence, Fattovich wrote in a paper published posthumously in 2018 that . Bard agrees with Fattovich鈥檚 assessment. She suspects Punt鈥檚 harbours probably lay along the coast of what is now Eritrea. 鈥淭he hinterland of Punt probably lay in [what is now] the Kassala region of eastern Sudan,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here are gold sources there and also incense trees.鈥�
The case isn鈥檛 entirely closed, however. 鈥淲e still have to debate the options,鈥� says Jacke Phillips at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University of London. 鈥淭he Egyptian evidence [supporting Punt鈥檚 location] varies and is sometimes contradictory over time.鈥� Perhaps that is because Punt was several distinct locations. Known expeditions to Punt were sometimes separated by centuries, so we can鈥檛 be sure that the Egyptians always went back to exactly the same place, she says. Punt may have been the name the Egyptians gave to anywhere along the Red Sea coast where they could obtain exotic products.
Even if we are homing in on Punt, or one version of it, something is still missing. What has happened to the 鈥渨onderful things鈥� the ancient Egyptians obtained there?
Baboons from Punt
Enter the baboons. These animals meant a great deal to the ancient Egyptians. They were venerated as an embodiment of Thoth, an Egyptian god of wisdom. Baboons were also cared for, and mummified after their death. All of which is curious, given that the primates aren鈥檛 native to Egypt. So where did the ancient Egyptians get their baboons?
To find out, Dominy and his colleagues analysed the remains of two hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas), both between 3200 and 3500 years old. They were found in Egypt in the 19th century and are now in the British Museum in London.
The researchers focused on isotopes of strontium in the teeth of one animal, and oxygen isotopes in the mummified fur of the second. Their analysis, published in 2020, showed that both baboons carried isotopic signatures , but similar to those of animals that come from portions of Somalia, and much of present-day Ethiopia, Djibouti 鈥� and Eritrea.
The obvious conclusion, says Dominy, is that the baboons came from Punt. As such, Dominy argues the two baboons are the first known Puntite objects found in Egypt. 鈥淭here are other tantalising objects strongly associated with Punt,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut to my knowledge nothing we can actually sample other than these baboons.鈥�
Bard doesn鈥檛 agree that the baboons are the first known Puntite objects. She says the excavations at Mersa Gawasis uncovered obsidian and ebony fragments that the archaeologists traced to sources in Eritrea. Despite this minor disagreement, however, Bard does have a great regard for Dominy鈥檚 work. 鈥淚 think highly of his analyses,鈥� she says.
In separate work with different baboons, Gisela Kopp at the University of Konstanz, Germany, analysed ancient DNA from mummified baboons found in Egypt, some about 2700 years old. All the animals post-date the period during which the ancient Egyptians traded with Punt. Exactly why trade ended or what became of Punt isn鈥檛 clear, but there are hints in the DNA that at least one of the mummified animals can trace its genetics to Eritrea 鈥� perhaps suggesting that the Egyptians were still sailing down the Red Sea to collect baboons even after Punt itself ceased to exist.
Which leaves just one mystery: why did the ancient Egyptians value baboons so highly, particularly when they are known for raiding crops and sometimes carrying disease?
Dominy is fascinated by a suggestion made in the late 1970s that, when the ancient Egyptians first came across hamadryas baboons, they noticed the animals have a habit of sunning themselves in the dawn light. According to the argument, the Egyptians interpreted this as evidence of the baboons welcoming the sun god Ra, indicating they were animals with divine connections.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a striking idea to me as a primatologist,鈥� says Dominy 鈥� although it hasn鈥檛 been investigated formally yet.
Of course, we may never know for sure what the ancient Egyptians were thinking when they decided to worship Punt鈥檚 baboons. On the flip side, Dominy points out we can only imagine what the Puntites made of the practice. The ancient Egyptians viewed Punt as an extraordinary land because of the products that could be obtained there. Perhaps the people of Punt viewed ancient Egypt as no less extraordinary because of the Egyptians鈥� baffling habit of venerating pesky primates.
