Wadi Gawasis

Many people are not aware of the site of Wadi Gawasis, so i will provide a few interesting links as a starter point. Could this provide a much sought after link to Punt?

What is most important about the Wadi Gerwasis is the current excavations being carried out which have proven to be incredibly fruitful. Firstly, I will ask you to have a look at the links provided in my last post entitled "Punt: Digging Away at a Mystery"


Now note that the archaeological findings are all pointing in the direction of the possibility that Wadi Gerwasis may have been the starting point the Ancient Egyptians used when setting off for the land of Punt.

Specific to Hatshepsut- i believe that no items have been found yet which point to her own expedition(s) to Punt, but further reading into the many reports show that the findings are exciting to say the least. At this stage i introduce the work of Kathryn Bard (Boston University) and Rodolfo Fattovich (Naples University):

Mersa/Wadi Gawasis  An Egyptian Harbour n the Red Sea 

The findings have been incredible. The University of Naples has a great way of breaking down the work carried out and listing the individual findings. I personally found their Egittologia article great for looking these findings up.

If you don't want to stop there- there's plenty of information online. I would advise to sticking to the work of the excavators and their Universities- to ensure completeness of information.

Regards,
Stuart

Punt: Digging Away at a Mystery

Thanks to Paul Boughton for bringing the following article to my attention:

Punt: Digging Away at a Mystery

"Tonight (Kathryn) Bard will describe what has been found at the site and what these artifacts tell us about the ancient Egyptians when she delivers this year’s University Lecture, titled The Wonderful Things of Punt: Excavations at a Pharaonic Harbor on the Red Sea, at the Tsai Performance Center at 7 p.m."

 I am sure the above event will be worth attending. The subject matter is of high importance to Ancient Egypt and the most recent discoveries have helped to keep the name of Punt on the lips of many of us.

Regards,
Stuart

Royal Ontario Museum Punt Cast

I have only attributed one item to the Royal Ontario Museum so far. The item is a wall cast of a section of the Deir el Bahri Punt Expedition.

Al Ahram Weekly (Issue No 60, October 2002) provides the information which i have been looking for on  how the cast made and how it ended up at the ROM. It seems that the Metropolitan Museum of Art comissioned a Mr Charles Trick Currelly (founder of the Royal Ontarion Museum) to copy the full Punt Expedition. This he did:

"He taught his Egyptian workmen a technique he had learned from Petrie at Abydos using tin foil and beeswax, and managed to persuade a group of visiting Torontonians to fund a second copy for the future museum -- a museum which had by that time gained momentum in his mind, if not in reality. The second copy of the Punt Expedition was duly created and remains one of the ROM's most impressive displays, a popular teaching point for the museum's educational programmes"

Regards,
Stuart

Building a Pharaoh's Ship - Documentary

Ever wondered what one of the ships depicted at Deir el Bahri (Punt reliefs) looked like in real life?
If so,then this documentary (on pbs.org) should prove interesting. A team set out to build a replica of one of Hatshepsut's ships which they intended to actually sail.

Did they succeed? Take a look for yourselves. Should you have issues with the video content they provide a full transcript.

(Aired January 12, 2010 on PBS)

Regards,
Stuart

Nehsi

Updated 11/04/2014

Nehsi/ Nehesi/ Nehesj was (and still is) someone of great importance to Hatsheput and to those of us who study her. I have limited information so far, but this was the man chosen to lead/ organise Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt. He is included in the Punt Colonnade at Deir el Bahri, was possibly of Nubian decent and held at least 2 titles: Wearer of the Royal Seal and Chief Treasurer.

Whether or not he was involved (in the expedition to Punt) from start to finish (including traveling there), i cannot tell you. Further searching will no doubt add further information and i will share any further information when available.

Wikipedia has this short article

Stuart

Hatshepsut Punt Relief - Brussels

Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels

This is just one of the fragments from Deir el Bahri housed outside Egypt, but known to Egyptology

Although not in-situ, fragments like these can be used when piecing together the walls of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. Exact replicas can be made and integrated into the temple walls.

From the Punt Colonnade, originally. The photograph comes from the Global Egyptian Museum's website. they have a great collection of Egyptian artifacts and are well worth the visit.

Regards,
Stuart

News from the Valley of Kings - Kate Phizackerley

I am a proud follower of Kate Phizackerley and her News from the Valley of Kings blog.

Last night as i was nearing brain- freeze on Flickr - i decided to drop in to see what Kate was posting. To my delight, Kate had just posted the following article:

UK TV Tonight 10pm - Hatshepsut

After running around the house, tripping up over my blog material (the horrible paper-based information which i always have the intention of working through, but inevitably end up resting my coffee cup on) i turned on the TV.

Now as a blogger (and specifically a Hatshepsut blogger), i share this delayed information with you.

The documentary is related to the Punt trading expeditions which are documented on the walls of Deir el Bahri- and for which Hatshepsut is so well known.

I intend to make notes, but have yet to do so. However, as luck would have it- there is a lovely write-up on another blog i follow: Egyptology News by Andie Burns/ Kat Newkirk.

Other blogs have been so helpful to the Hatshepsut Project. Please feel free to drop in to see what others are reporting on.

Thanks to Kate/Andie/Kat

Regards,
Stuart

Hatshepsut - Punt House Depiction

Hatshepsut Djeser-djeseru 3416
Originally uploaded by kairoinfo4u

This excellent photo shows us how Hatshepsut had the Puntite houses depicted. On stilts, surrounded by water and trees (some of which would be taken back to Egypt).

This links with a recent post on Punt and there are many more Punt photos to come.

Stuart

Hatshepsut - The Queen of Punt

Queen & King of the Land of Punt
Originally uploaded by The Handler

Here is a copy of a depiction of the Queen of Punt from Deir el Bahri.

Although her husband is present - i read his name as Pa-r-h-w (Parehu) it is the queen who draws our attention.

Her depiction as an obese lady has caused much debate. In today's world, we have a syndrome named "Queen of Punt Syndrome".

http://www.edoj.org.eg/vol001/00102/07/quine%20punt.htm

Maybe this is how the Egyptians actually saw the Queen. If so then this is the first time i have seen any Egyptian depiction of someone so large. Sometimes Egyptian people were shown to have rolls of fat on their bodies to show they are established/ well off. The queen of Punt would was not Egyptian and therefore tribal tradition (large = beautiful) could be the answer.

Stuart

Hatshepsut - British Museum Baboon mummies link to the land of Punt

From the Independent:

The actual location of the land of Punt has been the subject of discussion for some time. Hatshepsut's temple shows a well documented trading expedition to Punt. The decorations show the Queen of Punt and even names her as Itj/ Eti/Ati/Iti. We see depictions of Puntite housing- on stilts, the trees and animals which were brought back and of the Puntite people themselves.

What we do not have is a a clear description of where Punt is.

The above article is a year old, but the processes used give us an idea of what is being used to locate the land of Punt using modern technology.

There are other interesting articles and blogs on Punt, which i have read and saved. I will share these so that "Punt" as a tag will have more than just the Hatshepsut Mortuary temple depictions. Also I've spotted some great online photos which can be shared without copyright issues (always best to avoid those).

It would seem that they have ruled out the possibility of Punt being located in modern day Somalia and Yemen has also been ruled out. Modern day Eastern Ethiopia/ Eritrea have been found to be the closest match, according to results of oxygen isotope analysis (see link for description).

Furthermore a harbour has been located which may have been the harbour used by Hatshepsut's ships to load up and return to Egypt from Punt. It is located near modern day
Massawa.

This is all very interesting reading and there will be more to come according to the link.

Regards,
Stuart

Hatshepsut - Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada)

Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada)
Originally uploaded by md.faisalzaman

Something a bit different. This is a cast of the Deir el Bahri Punt Expedition, which can be found at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada).

As Egyptology progresses, we hear of the many attempts to recreate tombs so that studies can be made outside of Egypt and also to protect the tombs themselves. Casts which were made of tombs (and temple)decoration before the recognition of conservation may in some occasions have damaged the wall decorations they were intending to cast.

Today things are different, as we have seen in the Valley of the Kings (restoration work, the closing of tombs, etc). It would be nice to think that there will be whole temples reconstructed in museums around the world, so that those who may never see the monuments for themselves can still experience every hieroglyph, pillar, pylon, etc.

Who knows?

Regards,
Stuart

The Punt trading expedition

The walls of Hatshepsuts mortuary temple show scenes of a trading expedition to the land of Punt. The scenes show the items brought back, the houses of the Puntians (?) and the ships which took Hatshepsuts people to Punt and back again.

I recently saw a documentary called "Building a Pharaoh's ship". Attempts are made to recreate one of the ships depicted on the temple walls.

The PBS site shown below gives details of the documentary as well as a lot more information which some of you may find useful. You do not have to watch the film, but i recommend browsing the other parts of the site:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1379655910/

Stuart