The Land of Punt: a View from Mersa/Wadi Gawasis

Chapter 7 The Land of Punt: A View from Mersa/Wadi Gawasis

1 Punt and Mersa/Wadi Gawasis

Unquestionably, the archaeological and textual evidence from Mersa/Wadi Gawasis demonstrates the organization of seafaring expeditions to Punt and/ or Bia-Punt. The exact destination of these expeditions, however, is more prob- lematic. But new data from the harbor site, including exotic raw materials and artifacts, which were imported from these regions in the southern Red Sea, are now providing important evidence for reconstructing Egyptian trade with Punt and/or Bia-Punt in the Middle Kingdom, and the Mersa/Wadi Gawasis evidence is contributing in a significant – and unique – way to the debate on the location of these toponyms.

2 The Land of Punt: Egyptian Evidence

Beginning in the Old Kingdom, Egyptian texts record the land of Punt as a geographical region from where frankincense and other exotic commodities were imported (see Breyer 2016; Diego Espinel 2011; Herzog 1968; Kitchen 1993, 2001), and an exotic and mythical country from where marvelous things came to Egypt (see Beaux 1990: 295–306; Harvey 2003; Pirelli 1993). The trade with Punt also was embedded in royal ideology (see Martinssen 2003). The comple xities of this royal ideology can be seen in the Punt reliefs and texts in Hatshep- sut’s Deir el-Bahri temple, where Hatshepsut’s expedition not only obtained the Punt goods, but she also obtained “advantages of an ideological nature, since the presence of the Egyptian army in Punt is effective in including this land in the officially ‘known’ world and also in the officially controlled world” (Liverani 1990: 241). The trade goods that were dispatched from the Egyp- tian palace were for “Hathor Lady of Punt” (an Egyptian goddess), while the goods obtained in Punt were “tribute” (inw), then biAt when Hatshepsut re- ceived them in Thebes and presented them to Amen (Liverani 1990: 243–245). “BiAt” is the same term that was inscribed on the two cargo boxes excavated at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, referring to the contents of these boxes: “the wonderful things [biAwt: plural] of Punt.”

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The location of Punt has been debated for over a century, based on Egyptian textual and iconographic evidence. Many hypotheses have been suggested to identify Punt with a specific geographical region, including Syria, the Sinai, the Eastern Desert in Egypt and/or Sudan, the Upper Nile, the Sudanese-Eritrean lowlands, Eritrea, northern Somalia, the western Arabian peninsula, southern Arabia, East Africa, and India, which also demonstrates the fascination of this land with modern scholars – as well as the imagination of Egyptologists in locating it (see Breyer 2010, 2016: 56–310; Diego Espinel 2011: 59–120; Herzog 1968; Kitchen 1971, 1982, 1993, 2001, 2004). According to Egyptian textual and iconographic sources, Punt was the southernmost region included in the commercial network of the pharaonic state, and was regarded as a distinct country from the other southern regions within the Egyptian sphere of political and economic influence (see e.g., O’Connor 1993: 42; Schiaparelli 1916; Zibelius 1972). In the New Kingdom Punt encompassed several districts, suggesting that this land included different regions broadly stretching along the Red Sea coast and the African hinterland (see Breyer 2016: 541–543; Edel 1983; O’Connor 2006; Zyhlarz 1958). The land of Punt was a mountainous region with access to the sea. Dom palms grew there (as well as in Egypt), and baboons, which were not indig- enous to Egypt, were found in Punt. In Egyptian representational art Puntite men were depicted with short hair and headbands, wearing short skirts, while Puntite women had long hair, headbands and long skirts. Their standardized dress in representational art possibly suggests that the Egyptians perceived them as the same population. Only in the 18th Dynasty was another Puntite group, with long hair, associated with Punt, possibly suggesting that another Puntite group participated in trade with Egypt at this time (see Cooper 2015: 70–75; Diego Espinel 2011: 449–453). In the “Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor,” which dates to the Middle Kingdom, the sailor is found by a huge, bearded snake, covered with gold and lapis la- zuli, who describes himself as the “ruler” (hekaw) of Punt (see Lefebvre 1949: 29–40). In later New Kingdom texts, however, the werew (chiefs) of Punt were distinguished from the hekaw (rulers) of Nubia, which possibly suggests that there were small-scale polities in the Punt region at this time (Manzo 1999: 29–30, 35; see also Lorton 1974: 26–38, 60–68; Sachko 1998). The reliefs and texts recording a seafaring expedition to Punt in the Deir el- Bahri funerary temple of Queen/King Hatshepsut (ca. 1473–1458 BC) describe this land as a country inhabited by pastoral and/or agro-pastoral people with short-horned cattle, while herders with long-horned cattle occupied its hinterland (Breasted 1906–7 iv: 102–122; Millet 1962; Naville 1898: Pl. 56–86; Sethe 1905, 1906 (2): 315–355; W.S. Smith 1962).