From there they brought back perfumes, panther skins, electrum, and, yes, live baboons to keep as pets. The voyages started as early as the Old Kingdom, ca. 4,500 years ago, and continued until just after the collapse of the New Kingdom 3,000 years ago.
Egyptologists have long argued about the location of Punt. The presence of perfumes suggests that it was located somewhere in Arabia, such as Yemen. However the depiction of a giraffe, at a temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, tells archaeologists that Punt is likely somewhere in Africa – perhaps around Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia.
The various parts of the temple
(top picture you can see the remains of the Mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II (11th Dynasty).
There are even suggestions that it could be further south on the African coastline, perhaps as far as Mozambique.
The surviving Egyptian texts give only vague references to its location. An example below records a voyage sponsored by the Pharaoh Ramesses III. Author Pierre Grandet wrote:
I built great ships ... which were equipped with countless crewmen. Laden with products beyond number from Egypt ... (and then) sent to the great Sea of Muqed, they reached the mountains of Punt without any misfortune befalling them.
"The loading of the ships very heavily with the marvels from the land of Punt; all goodly fragrant woods, heaps of myrrh-resin, with fresh myrrh trees, with ebony and pure ivory, with green gold of Amu, with cinnamon-wood, khesyt-wood, with ahmut-incense, senter-incense, eye cosmetic, with apes, monkeys, dogs, with skins of the southern panther, and with natives and their children"
Other scenes then show the boats on their triumphant return to Egypt, thirty-one incense trees have been brought safely back along with cattle, incense leaves, skins, chests of gold, panthers, and other animals along with silver, lazuli, malachite and other precious stones.
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Finding Punt
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To solve the mystery of where Punt was, a team of scientists is turning to two mummified baboons in the British Museum. They date back about 3,000 years, a time when Egyptians were voyaging to Punt and acquiring the animals as pets.
One was found at Thebes and the other in the Valley of the Kings.
Photo by William Warby. An Olive Baboon from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic The team is conducting oxygen isotope tests on the preserved hairs of the baboons. Oxygen isotopes act as a 'signal' that can tell scientists where an animal is from.
“We have hair samples from the older mummified ones in the British Museum and depending on how the results look the curators are willing to give us bone samples,” said Nathaniel Dominy of University of California Santa Cruz, who is a member of the team doing the work.
He said that bone is better for this test than hair because it grows slower and keeps its original oxygen isotope signature longer.
To aid in narrowing down the location of Punt the team is also performing oxygen isotope tests on samples of modern day baboons from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Uganda and Mozambique. If the oxygen isotope signatures of these baboons match their ancient counterparts the team will know where Punt was.
The Risks
“There’s a little bit of risk with this project,” Professor Dominy said.
He explained that the Egyptians were importing baboons from Punt to keep as exotic pets. This poses a problem since the longer an animal stays in Egypt and consumes the local diet, the more its oxygen isotope value changes.
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Baboons of the Ptolemies
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The team will also be analyzing the hair of baboons that date from the Ptolemaic Period. This is a time in Egypt's history that runs from its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, to the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC.
The team will be using baboons from the Petrie Museum in University College London. While this work will tell archaeologists where the Ptolemies were getting their baboons, it isn’t likely to reveal the location of Punt. “The New Kingdom expeditions to Punt had largely diminished by that point,” said Dominy.
If all goes well the team hopes to have some initial results by April 23 - the start of an academic conference being held by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). Professor Dominy said that these first results may not yield the location of Punt but “at minimum we can reject some places.”
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At times Punt is referred to as Ta netjer, the "land of the god".
The exact location of Punt remains a mystery. Most scholars today believe Punt was located to the south-east of Egypt, most likely on the coast of the Horn of Africa in what is today Eritrea and eastern Sudan. However some scholars point instead to a range of ancient inscriptions which locate Punt in Arabia.
Egyptian expeditions to Punt
Egyptian soldiers from Hatshepsut's Year 9 expedition to the Land of Punt as depicted from her temple at Deir el-Bahri.
This relief depicts incense and myrrh trees obtained by Hatshepsut's expedition to PuntThe earliest recorded Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC) although gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt in the time of king Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt.
Subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt, the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt and the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. In the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt, trade with Punt was celebrated in popular literature in the "Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor"
"Arriving at the goodly way into God's Land, journeying in peace to the land of Punt".
Once the Egyptians land, a force of soldiers carrying spears, axes and shields are made ready in case of attack.The Egyptians have also brought with them some items to trade (strings of beads, an axe, a dagger, some bracelets and a wooden chest. The people of Punt welcome the Egyptians warmly, the Chief of Punt - Parahu - steps forward to meet the Egyptian officer (Parahu's wife is shown behind him, many different explanantions have been offered to explain her strange appearance ranging from suffering from a disease to being overweight), two sons and a servant drive along a donkey which the queen, Parahu's wife, sometimes rides:
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In a festival scene, soldiers run forward carrying branches of trees along with their axes.
Egyptian expeditions to Punt
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Egyptian soldiers from Hatshepsut's Year 9 expedition to the Land of Punt as depicted from her temple at Deir el-Bahri.
This relief depicts incense and myrrh trees obtained by Hatshepsut's expedition to PuntThe earliest recorded Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC) although gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt in the time of king Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt.
Subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt, the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt and the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. In the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt, trade with Punt was celebrated in popular literature in the "Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor"
The ships are shown, the baskets are being carried on board by the soldiers - along with many other items ( including a baboon, and trees in pots):
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In the reign of Mentuhotep III (around 1950 BC), an officer named Hannu organized one or more voyages to Punt, but it is uncertain whether he traveled on these expeditions. Trading missions of the 12th dynasty pharaohs Senusret I and Amenemhat II had also successfully navigated their way to and from the mysterious land of Punt.
Mummified Baboons in British Museum May Reveal Location of the Land of Punt Heritage Key
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