Mummified Baboons in British Museum May Reveal Location of the Land of Punt
Throughout their history the ancient Egyptians recorded making voyages to a place called the 'Land of Punt'. To the Egyptians it was a far-off source of exotic animals and valuable goods.
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.
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.
Finding Punt
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.
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 other team members are Professor Salima Ikram, one of the foremost experts on animal mummies, and graduate student Gillian Leigh Moritz, also of Santa Cruz.
MOVIE: How Animal Mummies were made, explained by Dr. Salima Ikram
Click here to view the transcript of this video.
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.
Hair grows fast and in a year or so “the chemical signal associated with their origin will be completely obliterated,” said Dominy. Bone is a possible fallback option because it grows slower than hair and the 'signal' stays in it longer.
There is one other possible problem.
Even if the team gets the data, successfully honing in on the precise origin of the animals could still be tricky. Baboons from areas that are close to each other tend to have similar oxygen isotope signatures making it a challenge to figure out exactly where they are from.
Baboons of the Ptolemies
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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Comments
Great idea! At the very least, it can narrow down the probable location of Punt. I am unclear on how they can state that the Ptolemaic period baboons were not from Punt because: “The New Kingdom expeditions to Punt had largely diminished by that point,” said Dominy.
So? Didn't stop, how can one say for sure whether no baboons were imported then? Or that baboons found now weren't bred in captivity, they were importing them how long? 1500 years or so? I'm guessing there was at least ONE businessman/breeder who did so.
Anyway, thanks for the good read!
It will be interesting to discover where Punt is located. But a caveat - it is possible the baboons were born in Egypt, given they were pets it is possible they were also bred in Egypt. I recall reading a book some years ago that "IF" the baboons of ancient Egypt had continued thru the Classical / Roman and later it is possible that we would have baboon breeds the same as dog breeds.
Thanks Farang and Dave. You both make good points.
-Text wise there isn't much evidence of trade with Punt happening in Ptolemaic times - of course that isn't definitive proof that it didn't happen.
Still it would be hard to prove the location of Punt with Ptolemaic baboons alone. Hellenistic trade was very vibrant and the lack of textual evidence for trade with Punt does mean that the Ptolemaic Egyptians could be getting them from somewhere else.
-Dave you are quite right a baboon could be bred in Egypt - in which case the oxygen isotope tests will show Egypt as their country of origin.
Is it not the case that Egyptian traders were trading with people who also were traders? Just because a Baboon was obtained in Punt doesn't necessarily mean the animal came from Punt. Back then, people involved in trade often obtained goods from great distances and made a point of not letting others know where the goods originated.
Hi VD, thanks for your comment, you raise an interesting point.
It seems unlikely that the people of Punt would have obtained baboons through long-distance trade before giving it to the Egyptians.
Baboons were locally available in all six of the possible Punt locations (Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Mozambique). Why would a resident of Punt go to the trouble and expense of transporting a baboon through long distance trade when you can capture one closer to home? It's unlikely that such an action would increase the value of the baboon and the extra long distance travel wouldn't be any good for the animal.
I would expect Punt was no great nation but more or less a region occupied by exotic tradesmen and tribes, they filled a niche for the desires of Egyptian royals and nobles by hunting and capturing exotic game. I am no expert but the baboons could be from any sub-saharan location in africa, its not congruent with the evidence that they would go to arabia for them (Acad). The coast of Somalia seems the most likely place to me, it will be interesting to learn of the results, thanks for the article.
Teeth are use for determining the location of birth in humans. Would the baboon's teeth do the same thing?
Hi Edgar, that's a good question. I'm not actually sure of the answer. I would have to ask Prof. Dominy if that is a possibility in this case.
Right now the team is working on the hair and skeletal bone of the baboon mummies to determine their origin - so far they haven't indicated that they'll be looking at the teeth.
Hi Owen, thanks for the article! i miss a bit the obvious mention of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_Puntland And if puntland was punt, i doubt there still are any baboons left in that region...
Thanks Sam, I'm glad you enjoyed it! You're quite right about the environmental damage, Somalia has had a terrible time of it over the past few decades. But the researchers tell me that they have baboon samples from Somalia so there must be some left (at least into recent times).
Why ancient Nubia is ruled out as the origin of the baboons? If Puntland was really existing at that time, why we don't know about that other great civilization as the ancient puntland? Or simply it is because it was stated that the pharaoh has built ships? River Nile was looked upon as see by the ancient Egyptians, and archaeologists do not tel us about any archaeological findings near red See, neither ancients Egyptians were able to explore sees, and again, all ancient populated places left behind them well known civilizations.
The ancient Egyptian descriptions of Punt show the poeple as living in huts, which is not the civilization Nubia had. Cataracts prevented travel by the Nile into Nubia and were difficult trade barriers. If the Egyptians recorded building boats, then there must be some truth in their texts. Though, Pharaoh Ramses II claimed vitory against the Hittites when the outcome of his battle was actually a draw, and pharaohs were known to exaggerate the truth to make their reigns more famous than their successors. The stories of Punt could be exaggerations of truth made up by the pharaohs to improve their image. Wood was a scarce commodity for the Egyptians, which would argue against the building of sea-faring boats in the Old Kingdom. But, the ancient Egyptians were able to use wood resourcefully and for practical purposes whenever they obtained it. It is impossible to prove exactly where Punt was, yet it is not out of the question to conceive of the Egyptians constructing sea-faring boats out of wood and sailing off the coast of Africa to Punt, wherever that was.
The movement of these ancient civilizations is amazing considering the effort required to get from place to place, the danger of the journey, and the need for allies along the way.bradenton alarm systems