Punt and Aksum: Egypt and the Horn of Africa

Abstract

The ancient Egyptians tended to consider both their immediate and more remote neighbours either as excellent sources of luxury trade items and slaves, at times of political power and strength, or as uncivilized forces threatening to destroy and overwhelm the Egyptian Nile Valley. This was true not only of cultures within Africa; those in the Aegean, the Levant, Cyprus and Mesopotamia also were viewed from one or the other perspective, occasionally both at the same time. All these, together with Nubia and Libya, have received much scholarly attention and, whilst we probably will never fully understand their ancient relationship to Egypt, we have a fairly good idea, ‘hearing’ the story from both sides when surviving evidence allows, what their attitudes towards each other were at various times in their history.This article deals with what is surely the least investigated aspect of ancient Egyptian relations with its neighbours, simply because we know comparatively little about the two major successive cultures concerned – Punt and Aksum – in the ancient world.

Forensic identification of elephant and giraffe hair artifacts using HATR FTIR spectroscopy and discriminant analysis

“…Markets in Mozambique sold both elephant hair bracelets and giraffe hair necklaces (Milliken 2002 (Barton 1921). The cultural use of giraffe tails in general extends back at least as far as ancient Egypt (Kirwan 1963, Phillips 1997.…”

The Meroitic Empire: Trade and Cultural Influences in an Indian Ocean Context

“…The Meroitic state was involved in furnishing goods for this trade, probably brought from the African savannah in the west as well as Southern Sudan. The goods included ivory, ebony, rhinoceros horn, leopard and other skins, ostrich feathers, gold and slaves (Arkell 1961;Phillips 1997;see also Thapar 1966, p. 114, for the importance of ivory and gold). The port of Adulis was a central outlet for ivory from the African hinterland; the Periplus (see below) has a brief description of Adulis.…”

“…In such redistributive systems, kings acted as the pivots mediating the flow of goods and services internally between different occupational specialists including cultivators, as well as externally between different kingdoms. The distribution of trade goods shows that Meroe participated in a network of material exchanges, connecting it with the Mediterranean world as well as with the Horn of Africa (Arkell 1951(Arkell , 1961(Arkell , 1966Shinnie 1967;Adams 1977;Welsby 1996;Phillips 1997;Edwards 2004). As will be discussed below, I will argue for the importance of mainly "invisible" trade goods such as spices and textiles that were probably part of this trade across the Red Sea to India.…”

“…However, the overland trade networks are not well documented. As emphasized by Phillips (1997), different tribal groups might have exerted some control of the overland trade routes, but it is likely that the Meroitic State had an interest in constraining their power. As suggested earlier, Cushitic-speaking pastoralists probably inhabited this area.…”

Documentary and Literary News on Clysma

“…55 Nevertheless, as Parker's study demonstrates, Rome did have a conception of the east generally, and of India in particular, which exhibited much of the preoccupation with exotica, spiritual knowledge and extreme practices, and the presence of wealth and wonders, which characterises more recent orientalist perspectives. In other words, while one should be wary about reading modern orientalism into Roman attitudes to the east, it 54 On the under-representation of inland African trade connections in the historical record: Phillips (1997) 455. Raschke (1978) 624 comments on the construction of statistical or quantitative analysis based on texts such as Pliny '[a]ll of these fake figures need to be dismissed.…”