This article offers a general review of the changing relationships between the areas of present-day Egypt and the Sudan with those of Ethiopia and Eritrea, from the third millennium B.C. until the seventh century A.D. Despite the limitations of sometimes conflicting scholarly interpretation of the available evidence, historical texts and documents, together with archaeological evidence, reveal a surprising continuity throughout this long period of fluctuating centralized powers. The earliest historical references date to the Fifth Egyptian Dynasty, but archaeological evidence in the form of Red Sea shells found in Nile valley graves as early as the Neolithic period clearly indicates that contact had been established long before. The Egyptians saw the southern Red Sea area as a source of luxury goods, and contact (although intermittent, according to Egypts fluctuating strength) continued at least until the Nineteenth Dynasty. The land of Punt, the name given to this area by the Egyptians, is known to us only through their records. No archaeological remains have ever been identified, even tentatively, as Puntite. Archaeological remains dating to the periods of the later DMT (in the mid-first millennium B.C.) and Aksum (first half of the first millennium AD.) kingdoms, together with textual evidence chiefly derived from the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures in contact with them, have provided a more comprehensive picture of relations with the outside world, chiefly for the coastal areas and Red Sea connections. Overland relations with the Nile valley also are reviewed. Overland connections are more tenuously seen, but some texts and archaeological do aid in identifying major trading routes throughout the period under consideration. Recent excavations, especially in the Sudan, have added greatly to our understanding of such connections. This recent work has been highlighted wherever possible. markbwilson/courses/F2012/NHIS3116_Articles/03_Phillips-Punt.pdf
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 18:41:31 +0000
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