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An interdisciplinary project involving biologists, Egyptologists, and anthropologists has discovered evidence that may pinpoint the actual location of the trading region of Punt, based on the genetic analysis of an ancient mummified baboon discovered in the ‘Valley of the Monkeys’ in 1905. A previous American study (in 2020) using stable isotopes (chemical signatures found in the teeth of animals) identified the Horn of Africa as the region from which ancient baboons originated. The new research, led by the University of Konstanz in Germany, used genetic analysis to compare the animal specimen to the genetic diversity of baboons living across the African continent, as well as to samples from 100- to 150 year-old specimens from museum collections.
Early texts mention that baboons were imported into Egypt from Punt, with the last known expeditions taking place there during the Late Period, which matches the date of the mummified baboon. The team was able to pinpoint the baboon’s origin to the coastal port of ancient Adulis in Eritrea, which was known as a centre for the import of primates during the Graeco-Roman Period. The researchers suggest that Punt and Adulis could be the same geographical location, with the name having changed over thousands of years.
Text: Sarah Griffiths / Image: Steven G Johnson, CC BY 3.0 via Wikicommons
