DNA evidence extracted from a mummified baboon in 2023 seems to reveal the location of the mysterious city of Punt.
It turns out ancient Egyptians had a thing for keeping baboons in their temples, since the violent animals were strongly associated with the god Babi, ruler of the underworld, according to Live Science. The Egyptians kept the monkeys in cavity, removed their huge teeth for safety and, as far as science is concerned, baboons were never native to Egypt.
But a new study published in esLife Sciences in September points the origin of baboons in Egypt toward another mystery: the location of a city never identified on any maps, but rumored to be a significant hub to our ancient ancestors. Punt was mentioned in a few ancient Egyptian texts. But its exact place in our world was lost to history.
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“There were these stories that they got them from Punt, this fabled, mysterious land,” study author Gisela Kopp told Live Science. Kopp and her co-authors studied the DNA of mummified baboons from around 800 B.C. and 540 B.C. in a region now known as Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The baboons were found to be closely related to animals in coastal Eritrea. (RELATED: Ancient Civilization’s Lost Communications Revealed With New Technology)
“It’s close to this ancient port of Adulis,” Kopp noted, per Live Science. Historical records suggest Egyptians were trading baboons in Punt as far back as 1550 B.C., so are Punt and Adulis actually the same place?
“Maybe the earlier Punt was in a similar location to where Adulis was [later] established,” Kopp continued. Further research is needed to confirm the hypothesis, but this is the closest we’ve been to rediscovering this once-lost chapter of our history. How cool is that?