New Perceptions on the Expeditions to the Land of Punt during the Pharaonic Period.

Résumé

“Punt” is the name of a geographic location. This place has occupied the minds of experts in (Egyptology) since (the beginning of the 19^th century) to this day: What is “Punt”? Where is it located? How did the Egyptians reach it?

“Punt” was important as it was the source of a group of valuable goods that were unavailable in Egypt’s local environment.

The discussion between the experts continued until the beginning of the 70s of the previous century and was only theoretical. Studies and archaeological excavations emerged and changed the path of scientific debate about this topic. It all started with a study about “Punt” done by the German researcher, Rolf Herzog. He concluded that “Punt” is located by the White Nile, and that the Egyptians used to reach it only through the route of the Nile river.

This study caused a big controversy among the experts; some agreed with it while others didn’t, until the release of the results of an archaeological expedition on the Red Sea shore led by Abd al-Mone’m al-Haleem Sayed. This expedition explored inscriptions and remains of a Pharaonic port that belongs to the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The texts of this site mentioned a definite connection to “Punt”; in other words, they clarified that the route to “Punt” is the Red Sea and not the Nile. The expedition from Italy to America completed the excavations in the site from the period 2002 until 2010, and confirmed the previous results.

Finally, Dimitri Meeks wrote an article in 2002 about this topic. He verified that the Red Sea was the route taken to reach “Punt”, and that it most likely is the Arabian Peninsula, as many previous experts thought.  The first part of this paper discusses the relevant sources of this historical problem in chronological order. The paper then proposes a new perception in light of the results of the modern archaeological excavations.