To mark the launch of our updated guide to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, Professor Ken Kitchen was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on the ancient east African kingdom of Punt and her trade with New Kingdom Egypt:
For over thirteen centuries (c. 2500-1170 B.C.) the Egyptian record bears witness to the existence of a territory and people located in east Africa whose name is usually rendered as ‘Punt’ in most modern writings.
Egypt’s Trade with Punt
Apart from Nubia, located on the Nile south of Egypt, Punt is the sole African land with so ancient a history, traceable back into the third millennium B.C. Its appearance in the Egyptian documentation usually concerns the trade in exotic goods between Egypt and Punt. The fullest list of Puntite products appears in the New Kingdom reliefs of Hatshepsut (see further below). They include herbs, myrrh, frankincense, resin, ebony, ivory, gold, other woods, eye paint, various fauna and people. Literary references alluding to the odours of Punt emphasize the dominance of aromatics amongst the goods traded.
Geographic Location and Peoples
Map showing the location of Punt
Despite a century of scholarly discussion, the land of Punt is still ‘of no fixed address’. However, there is seemingly a virtually conclusive case for placing Punt between the Red Sea and the middle Nile, occupying a large area on the north and northwest flanks of the Ethiopian highlands in east Sudan.
The main Puntite population was mixed. Besides the so-called ‘Hamitic’ type, not very different from the Egyptians in appearance, others represented were clearly of African stock, in hues of brown and near-black. Their pile-dwelling homes, clear presence of domesticated cattle and the references to ‘chiefs’ (plural) may well indicate a country and culture of scattered villages, inhabited by cattle-herding pastoralists, trading in aromatics grown on the hill terraces.
Hatshepsut’s Expedition to Punt
The earliest clear-cut reference to Punt comes at the height of the ‘Pyramid Age’ in the reign of Sahure of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2450 B.C.). Further mention of Punt occurs sporadically in both royal and private records of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. For the New Kingdom (late second millennium B.C.) our historical contacts with Punt are fourfold.
In this article we will deal with the most famous of the four examples – the Punt expedition sent by Queen Hatshepsut, which is immortalised in the beautifully wrought reliefs in her memorial temple at Deir el-Bahari in West Thebes. The Queen announced the success of her expedition in a special sitting of her court in her 9th year. The motivation for the mission appears to have been a desire to cut out the middlemen in obtaining supplies of ‘the marvels of Punt’, primarily aromatics such as incense and myrrh for use in the temple cults.
Hatshepsut's ships navigating the Red Sea
A schematic representation of the land of Punt occupies the entire south-end wall of the Middle Colonnade (to be read from bottom to top). The first two registers show the Egyptian envoy meeting the local chiefs in Punt and the presentation of gifts and trade-goods. The only chief shown is Parahu, accompanied by his ample wife. In the second register the Egyptian envoy receives the Puntite goods, symbolized by a heap of myrrh, trays of gold rings and pieces of ebony wood.
Relief of the Queen of Punt (Deir el-Bahari)
The upper four registers show the hewing of ebony, the collecting of myrrh and the removal of myrrh shrubs, as well as illustrating the fauna (baboon, giraffe, rhino, cattle, dogs, donkeys) and the flora, besides domed pile-dwellings.
Getting to Punt
Hatshepsut’s expedition was ordered by Theban Amun, hence it may well have begun and ended at the Nile quays of Thebes. If so, Hatshepsut’s men may first have taken their boats and goods through the Wadi Hammamat to reach the shore of the Red Sea. Here at the port of Sa’waw harbour (Mersa Gawâsîs) they would have re-assembled the Thebes-built ships and then sailed on to Punt. On their return, they would have again trans-shipped everything overland from the seacoast to Koptos, and have sailed thence south to a ceremonial home-coming at Thebes.
Watercolour by Howard Carter of Queen Ahmes, mother of Hatshepsut
