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The skulls of two baboons, mummified more than 3,000 years ago, have helped mark the location of a legendary “land of plenty,” which once supplied ancient Egypt with gold, frankincense, myrrh and monkeys.
Known as the land of Punt, or ‘the land of God’, this fantastical and distant realm may have actually existed outside of their famous mythology, even though no physical remains of it have ever been found.
The ancient writings and drawings of the time have convinced many archaeologists that the land of Punt was located somewhere around the Red Sea and was instrumental in the rise of the spice routes, also known as the sea silk routes. , which united Eastern and Western cultures and commerce for the first time.
Or maybe they should have been called the ‘baboon beats’. Researchers now think that the trafficking of a sacred monkey, known as the Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), was “an important factor contributing to the increase in Red Sea trade during the second millennium BC.”
The ancient Egyptians seemed to have revered the Hamadryas baboon. The god Thoth, the supreme being of the moon and wisdom, is sometimes depicted as a baboon (Thoth is also often depicted with the head of an ibis), with statues of the deity in the temples. Ancient Egyptians also buried baboon mummies in tombs.
As such, the ancient Egyptians traveled great distances to acquire live baboons. Their trade is actually the first recorded transplant of foreign fauna in human history.
The land of Punt was a great emporium for monkeys and specifically for Hamadryas baboons. Illustrations show these animals being transported back to Egypt by ships and sometimes by land, yet the ancient animal trade is often overlooked when historians discuss Punt’s mysterious location.
Detail of the walls of an Egyptian mortuary temple. The baboon is one of seven examples of Papio hamadryas depicted on the rigging of Egyptian ships returning to Egypt from Punt. (Nathaniel Dominy)
By tracing the origins of numerous baboon mummies found in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs, researchers now believe that the Hamadryas species originated in a region spanning Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and parts of Somalia and Yemen.
“This result is a testament to the tremendous scope of Egyptian navigation during the second millennium BC,” the authors write.
“It also corroborates the balance of academic assumptions about Punt’s location.”
In the past, experts have argued that the legendary lands of Punt lie near the Somali coast. Others think they continue east into Eritrea or include more of the Arabian Peninsula, such as present-day Yemen. There are even those who argue that the land extends to Uganda or Mozambique, although this notion is more strongly disputed.
The new estimated location, while still tentative, helps narrow our focus.
“Many scholars view the trade between Egypt and Punt as the first long sea passage in a trade network known as the Spice Route, which would continue to shape geopolitical fortunes for millennia,” explains anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy of Dartmouth College.
“Baboons were critical to this trade, so determining Punt’s location is important.”
Map of Africa and skull of specimen EA6738 with import from somewhere in the region shaded in red, a likely location for the legendary land of Punt. (Jonathan Chipman and Nathaniel Dominy)
In addition to examining the mummified baboons, the researchers analyzed tissue from 155 modern baboons from 77 locations (which existed within Punt’s current hypothetical location). By comparing the chemical compositions in the monkeys’ teeth, bones and hair, the team was able to determine overall where they came from.
The chemical signatures left on the animal’s remains can give us information about where they lived. The strontium isotope mix varies with the foods you eat, for example, and they fixate on tooth enamel at a young age.
By analyzing these chemical signatures, the new findings show that the hamadryas mummies, EA6738 and EA6736, were not born in Egypt. Instead, the authors believe that these mummified remains, permanently placed as the god Thoth, come from a location in Eritrea, Ethiopia or Somalia.
One of the hamadryas monkeys, EA6738, appears to have lived in Egypt for many years. Their original home was found to be located directly within the natural range of their species, right where Punt is believed to exist.
The other monkey, EA 6736, died shortly after arriving in Egypt. With only days or months in a new land, her hair and enamel didn’t have enough time to become contaminated with sediment from the Nile.
Because all of their canines had been ripped off, the authors believe that these monkeys lived around people, possibly as actual pets, fruit pickers, or even police animals. As the authors note: One bite from these guys could cut a thigh muscle to the bone.
In contrast, five mummified baboons of another species, traded in Africa several hundred years earlier, appear to have been born and raised in Egypt under very different circumstances.
Because Egypt was thought to lack monkey species, the authors believe it provides “tantalizing indications of a captive breeding program for baboons at this time, probably in Memphis, an ancient capital in Lower Egypt, northwest of the Sea. Red”.
What these monkeys were used for is another question, but they seem to have lived harder lives than the idolized hamadryas. Their mummified bodies showed remnants of prolonged indoor confinement and vitamin D deficiencies.
“Leaving aside the puzzling question of why the ancient Egyptians deified P. hamadryas, the level of reverence was sufficient to justify the importation, breeding and mummification of this and another species, P. anubis, the olive baboon, “write the authors.
Though often forgotten by historians and archaeologists, the mummified baboons of ancient Egypt could be the last remaining clue to the lost land of Punt.
“The trade in exotic luxury goods, including baboons, was the engine behind the first nautical innovations,” says Dominy.
“For more than 150 years, Punt has been a geographical mystery. Our analysis is the first to show how mummified baboons can be used to inform this long-standing debate.”
The study was published in eLife.
