Studying mummified baboons has been used to help locate Punt, ancient Egypt’s trading partner. Punt is something of an ancient mystery as the Egyptians did not record its location anywhere. It seems to have been simply assumed that everyone knew where Punt was, like knowing where Australia is today.
This is where baboons come in.
First, it is important to know that ancient Egypt did not appear to have native monkey populations. Yet the Egyptian god Thoth, who represented the moon, wisdom, and writing, was sometimes shown as having the head of a baboon in pictures and statues. And critically for this most recent study, the ancient Egyptians also buried baboon mummies in tombs. So ancient Egypt did not have native baboons but they had a major need for imported baboons for religious purposes. The most special of these baboons appear to have been Hamadryas baboons. Ancient Egyptians would travel great distances, and pay a significant amount, for the special Hamadryas baboons.
Punt is known to have been a major trader of baboons in general, and Hamadryas baboons in particular. Tracing the origins of numerous baboon mummies found in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs, and depictions of their transport mainly by water but sometimes by land, researchers now think the Hamadryas species was sourced from a region spanning Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and some of Somalia and Yemen. The latest study analyzed the tissue of 155 modern baboons from 77 locations, and also looked at two mummified Hamadryas baboons dating to 3000 years ago. Analyzing their chemical signatures, and comparing them to modern baboons, the findings show both the Hamadryas mummies had come from what is today Ethiopia, Eriteria, or Somalia. This corroborates the scholarly hypothesis of where Punt was probably located.
Interestingly, the Hamadryas mummies had been treated rather better than five mummified baboons of another species, traded across Africa several hundred years earlier. We may be closing in on Punt. But what made the ancient Egyptians revere the Hamadryas baboons compared to other baboons remains mysterious.
