Jan 14 - Dinner with an amateur archaeologist (right) and a new friend (left), Hargeisa
That morning I bought a copy of Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim Awale's booklet "The Mystery of the Land of Punt Unravelled", the only English-language publication re Somaliland and its history available for sale in town. www.amazon.ca/The-Mystery-Land-Punt-Unravelled/dp/8799520826 It was easy to obtain his contact info from the people in the bookstore, call him up and invite him to dinner at his choice of restaurant later that evening, my treat. We discussed his book and his theories. In the 2nd millenium BC the ancient Egyptians would send trade missions south via the Red sea to a place they called 'Punt' to trade grain, wheat, beer, and glass (the latter from Alexandria) for gold, ivory, electrum, ebony, live animals, etc., and precious aromatics. (Queen Hatshepsut was so proud of one lucrative trade mission in 1482 B.C. that detailed friezes in her mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahri depict the expedition, with images of the people, houses and goods of Punt. The ROM here at home has a great display of 'the Punt wall' from that mortuary temple, a 1905 plaster cast of it with an hypnotic, atmospheric, six-min. audio presentation. www.youtube.com/shorts/H48a4tnepqc youtu.be/617O5Tf9UuY?si=9EY_rl29Q8_wln8k commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Hatshepsut's_expedi... ) Punt's location is a popular source of debate with academics. Some claim it's in modern-day Ethiopia or Eritrea on the basis of the remains of Hamadryas baboons found in Egypt from the period, prized as sacred manifestations of Thoth and imported from Punt. But such baboons could be found in ancient Somaliland as well. Awale ably sets out the argument and evidence at the beginning of his book that Punt was in fact at Maydh, near Erigavo on the NE coast of Somaliland. It's uncontroversial that the ancient Egyptians believed they descended from southerners who traveled north to people or conquer Egypt in the distant past. The meat of Awale's book expounds on his claim that he and his friends, a band of 'barefoot archaeologists' (as he put it), found numerous ancient artifacts in the Hargeisa vicinity that he maintains are clearly proto-Egyptian.
- Update.: Amongst the candidates for the location of Punt, or of the 'Emporium of Punt', Prof. Nate Dominy of Dartmouth College favours Adulis in Eritrea, and he makes a good case for it in the interview in the next link. He explains (well into the i/v at 21:42), that evidence is lacking for the longstanding assumption that the ancient Egyptians imported Frankincense. (Another article linked to below contradicts him on this important point.) Myrrh was certainly imported from Punt, as well as another aromatic, sntr (pron. seh-nurture?), recently identified as the resin of a plant in the genus pistacia (which includes pistachio-nut-bearing trees), and that the leaf arrangement of Pistachia Ethiopicus is identical to that of a tree depicted in a relief at Deir el-Bahri. Hatshepsut evidently imported these sntr trees.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSSglhr3Is0 www.science.org/content/article/3300-year-old-baboon-skul... It's surprising that ancient Egyptian trade goods haven't been found in some coastal region in Eritrea or Somaliland or elsewhere in Africa in any significant quantity in light of the extent of trade /b/ Egypt and Punt in the period of the New Kingdom. Prof. Dominy explains that current and recent excavations at Adulis have stopped at the Roman level (at 27:20), and that he hopes that current or future excavations will dig deeper. He states that "many Eritreans [local archeologists] are working with Italian archeologists and the Italians are interested in the Roman level and then they stop, and the Eritrean researchers should maybe push them a bit to dig deeper [as] there are many interesting questions to be answered that are older than the Roman record." (He also seems to imply that the trade conducted between Middle and then New Kingdom Egypt and Punt is a primary long distance trade network, a genesis of international maritime trade, and that's just not true. The Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia traded extensively with the Indus river civilization of what is today Pakistan, traveling by sea along the coasts of what is today Iran and Balochistan, for centuries before the advent of the Middle Kingdom in 2040 BC. And "Mesopotamia had been an intermediary in the trade in lapis lazuli between South Asia and Egypt since at least @ 3,200 BCE, in the context of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations." [Wikipedia])
- What a rabbit-hole this is, the question of the location of the Emporium of Punt. I've tried to confirm what Prof. Dominy has to say re the lack of Frankincense in ancient Egypt, and I've been taken to the Eber papyrus, and elsewhere., incl. to this article which has much to say re ancient Egyptian trade with Punt in the time of the OLD Kingdom in the 3rd mill. BC., and which maintains that the Egyptians imported a 2nd, higher grade aromatic known as ‘ntiyw or nty, and which was exclusively acquired from Punt, unlike sntr which was of a lower grade and could be obtained in the Nile valley as well.: landofpunt.wordpress.com/tag/adulis/ The author claims that ntiyw or nty is Frankincense, but could it have been Myrrh? It was according to Nova.: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/egypt-punt/
- Adulis = Punt makes sense for another reason. Adulis is considered to have been the emporium for the ancient, early 1st mill. kingdom of D'mt which grew and flourished there and further into the interior at the cult centre (and D'mt capital?) Yeha, and which was succeeded centuries later by Axum. Great stone obelisks or stelae (reminiscent of those erected in ancient Egypt - ?) were erected by the inhabitants of D'mt at Keskese in @ 500 BC, and centuries later in the Axumite empire. In fact, the tallest and largest ever erected anywhere in antiquity lies in pieces today at Axum. Could there be obelisks and stelae many centuries older and contemporary with Punt waiting to be excavated in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia? The exposure through trade to the great complexity and sophistication of ancient Egypt could only have rubbed off on Punt. The genesis of the great Sabaean civilization in latter day Yemen, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, famous for the legendary, Biblical 'Queen of Sheba', and for such sites as Marib, could have been at 'Punt'. (I've never read or heard this theory anywhere, but I'm sure it's been well argued. Tbh, I'm embarrassed that the possibility of a connection didn't occur to me years ago.)
For another day.
- Update July, '24: Scientific evidence continues to accumulate that Adulis in Eritrea = Punt. (Sorry Mr. Awale.) www.heritagedaily.com/2023/10/genetic-analysis-of-baboons...
It's almost unfair. Again, Mr. Awale's booklet was the ONLY one available in that bookstore in Hargeisa in English re Hargeisa or Somaliland or Somalia (or was it simply the only book available for sale in English?). He and his friends were enthusiastic, to say the least, in their search for Punt and he made an eloquent claim for Erigavo and Maydh with quiet pride. Somalians further east have seen fit to name a large region, the very horn of Africa, 'Puntland'. The population of Puntland was almost 4 1/2 million 10 years ago (per Wikipedia), and it's fair to assume that the locals understand the basis for the name and take pride in the region's alleged connection with the high culture of the Egyptian 'New Kingdom'. I've met many Eritreans in Toronto, and I often bring up this question of the location of Punt at Adulis, and to a man and a woman, not a one has heard of Punt, and none seem to be too interested. Most of the Eritreans I know are just that focused on their Coptic Christianity and Jesus. The Somalilanders and Somalians covet a good claim to Punt while the Eritreans generally don't seem to care (or again so I've found), but Adulis is shaping up to be the site of the fabled emporium. Then again, some claim that 'Punt' refers to a region which could include Djibouti and Zeila, for example. It's still a moving target, but less so.
- www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/baboon-...
- youtu.be/218htb37SuQ?si=rzD9DWhf183Ty4JW
- www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egypts-sacred-bab...
Jan 14 - Dinner with an amateur archaeologist (right) and a new friend (left), Hargeisa
That morning I bought a copy of Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim Awale's booklet "The Mystery of the Land of Punt Unravelled", the only English-language publication re Somaliland and its history available for sale in town. www.amazon.ca/The-Mystery-Land-Punt-Unravelled/dp/8799520826 It was easy to obtain his contact info from the people in the bookstore, call him up and invite him to dinner at his choice of restaurant later that evening, my treat. We discussed his book and his theories. In the 2nd millenium BC the ancient Egyptians would send trade missions south via the Red sea to a place they called 'Punt' to trade grain, wheat, beer, and glass (the latter from Alexandria) for gold, ivory, electrum, ebony, live animals, etc., and precious aromatics. (Queen Hatshepsut was so proud of one lucrative trade mission in 1482 B.C. that detailed friezes in her mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahri depict the expedition, with images of the people, houses and goods of Punt. The ROM here at home has a great display of 'the Punt wall' from that mortuary temple, a 1905 plaster cast of it with an hypnotic, atmospheric, six-min. audio presentation. www.youtube.com/shorts/H48a4tnepqc youtu.be/617O5Tf9UuY?si=9EY_rl29Q8_wln8k commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Hatshepsut's_expedi... ) Punt's location is a popular source of debate with academics. Some claim it's in modern-day Ethiopia or Eritrea on the basis of the remains of Hamadryas baboons found in Egypt from the period, prized as sacred manifestations of Thoth and imported from Punt. But such baboons could be found in ancient Somaliland as well. Awale ably sets out the argument and evidence at the beginning of his book that Punt was in fact at Maydh, near Erigavo on the NE coast of Somaliland. It's uncontroversial that the ancient Egyptians believed they descended from southerners who traveled north to people or conquer Egypt in the distant past. The meat of Awale's book expounds on his claim that he and his friends, a band of 'barefoot archaeologists' (as he put it), found numerous ancient artifacts in the Hargeisa vicinity that he maintains are clearly proto-Egyptian.
- Update.: Amongst the candidates for the location of Punt, or of the 'Emporium of Punt', Prof. Nate Dominy of Dartmouth College favours Adulis in Eritrea, and he makes a good case for it in the interview in the next link. He explains (well into the i/v at 21:42), that evidence is lacking for the longstanding assumption that the ancient Egyptians imported Frankincense. (Another article linked to below contradicts him on this important point.) Myrrh was certainly imported from Punt, as well as another aromatic, sntr (pron. seh-nurture?), recently identified as the resin of a plant in the genus pistacia (which includes pistachio-nut-bearing trees), and that the leaf arrangement of Pistachia Ethiopicus is identical to that of a tree depicted in a relief at Deir el-Bahri. Hatshepsut evidently imported these sntr trees.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSSglhr3Is0 www.science.org/content/article/3300-year-old-baboon-skul... It's surprising that ancient Egyptian trade goods haven't been found in some coastal region in Eritrea or Somaliland or elsewhere in Africa in any significant quantity in light of the extent of trade /b/ Egypt and Punt in the period of the New Kingdom. Prof. Dominy explains that current and recent excavations at Adulis have stopped at the Roman level (at 27:20), and that he hopes that current or future excavations will dig deeper. He states that "many Eritreans [local archeologists] are working with Italian archeologists and the Italians are interested in the Roman level and then they stop, and the Eritrean researchers should maybe push them a bit to dig deeper [as] there are many interesting questions to be answered that are older than the Roman record." (He also seems to imply that the trade conducted between Middle and then New Kingdom Egypt and Punt is a primary long distance trade network, a genesis of international maritime trade, and that's just not true. The Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia traded extensively with the Indus river civilization of what is today Pakistan, traveling by sea along the coasts of what is today Iran and Balochistan, for centuries before the advent of the Middle Kingdom in 2040 BC. And "Mesopotamia had been an intermediary in the trade in lapis lazuli between South Asia and Egypt since at least @ 3,200 BCE, in the context of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations." [Wikipedia])
- What a rabbit-hole this is, the question of the location of the Emporium of Punt. I've tried to confirm what Prof. Dominy has to say re the lack of Frankincense in ancient Egypt, and I've been taken to the Eber papyrus, and elsewhere., incl. to this article which has much to say re ancient Egyptian trade with Punt in the time of the OLD Kingdom in the 3rd mill. BC., and which maintains that the Egyptians imported a 2nd, higher grade aromatic known as ‘ntiyw or nty, and which was exclusively acquired from Punt, unlike sntr which was of a lower grade and could be obtained in the Nile valley as well.: landofpunt.wordpress.com/tag/adulis/ The author claims that ntiyw or nty is Frankincense, but could it have been Myrrh? It was according to Nova.: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/egypt-punt/
- Adulis = Punt makes sense for another reason. Adulis is considered to have been the emporium for the ancient, early 1st mill. kingdom of D'mt which grew and flourished there and further into the interior at the cult centre (and D'mt capital?) Yeha, and which was succeeded centuries later by Axum. Great stone obelisks or stelae (reminiscent of those erected in ancient Egypt - ?) were erected by the inhabitants of D'mt at Keskese in @ 500 BC, and centuries later in the Axumite empire. In fact, the tallest and largest ever erected anywhere in antiquity lies in pieces today at Axum. Could there be obelisks and stelae many centuries older and contemporary with Punt waiting to be excavated in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia? The exposure through trade to the great complexity and sophistication of ancient Egypt could only have rubbed off on Punt. The genesis of the great Sabaean civilization in latter day Yemen, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, famous for the legendary, Biblical 'Queen of Sheba', and for such sites as Marib, could have been at 'Punt'. (I've never read or heard this theory anywhere, but I'm sure it's been well argued. Tbh, I'm embarrassed that the possibility of a connection didn't occur to me years ago.)
For another day.
- Update July, '24: Scientific evidence continues to accumulate that Adulis in Eritrea = Punt. (Sorry Mr. Awale.) www.heritagedaily.com/2023/10/genetic-analysis-of-baboons...
It's almost unfair. Again, Mr. Awale's booklet was the ONLY one available in that bookstore in Hargeisa in English re Hargeisa or Somaliland or Somalia (or was it simply the only book available for sale in English?). He and his friends were enthusiastic, to say the least, in their search for Punt and he made an eloquent claim for Erigavo and Maydh with quiet pride. Somalians further east have seen fit to name a large region, the very horn of Africa, 'Puntland'. The population of Puntland was almost 4 1/2 million 10 years ago (per Wikipedia), and it's fair to assume that the locals understand the basis for the name and take pride in the region's alleged connection with the high culture of the Egyptian 'New Kingdom'. I've met many Eritreans in Toronto, and I often bring up this question of the location of Punt at Adulis, and to a man and a woman, not a one has heard of Punt, and none seem to be too interested. Most of the Eritreans I know are just that focused on their Coptic Christianity and Jesus. The Somalilanders and Somalians covet a good claim to Punt while the Eritreans generally don't seem to care (or again so I've found), but Adulis is shaping up to be the site of the fabled emporium. Then again, some claim that 'Punt' refers to a region which could include Djibouti and Zeila, for example. It's still a moving target, but less so.
- www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/baboon-...
- youtu.be/218htb37SuQ?si=rzD9DWhf183Ty4JW
- www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egypts-sacred-bab...