Gale - Science and Its Times Vol 01 (2000 BC to AD 699).pdf

type of dress or robe. The most fascinating and
controversial figure on the reliefs is the queen
of Punt who is depicted with an exaggerated
swayback and rolls of fat covering her arms and
short legs. The peculiar, but precise, portrayal
of the queen of Punt has led many scholars to
suggest that she suffered from a variety of serious
medical conditions, although it may be
that the Egyptians were simply impressed by
her enormous size and wanted to record it accurately.
In addition to people, the Punt reliefs
show villages and surrounding flora and fauna.
The typical Puntite village was located on the
banks of a river where round, domed, mud
huts were built on piers to keep them free of
the river’s floodwaters and safe from snakes,
crocodiles, and hippos. Landscape features,
plants, and animals included on the reliefs
suggest that Punt was located in the hilly savannah
country west of the Red Sea. Because
no one has attempted to excavate in this area,
many questions remain about the Puntite culture
and its trade with Egypt. The Egyptians
themselves apparently did not have a permanent
camp in Punt, although Hatshepsut built
a small shrine there in honor of the god Amun
and the queen of Punt.
The Punt expedition provided Egypt with
numerous luxury items. Most in demand were
aromatic resins, myrrh and frankincense, which
the Egyptians used for religious ceremonies. The
Egyptians even brought back myrrh trees, their
root balls protected in baskets, to be replanted at
various temples. Other desirable commodities
included panther, leopard, and cheetah skins;
ivory; ebony; gold; live animals such as baboons
and cattle; semiprecious stones; and spices. Not
all these items were native to Punt, but were
gathered further inland by the Puntites expressly
for the Egyptian trade. In return, the Egyptians
traded beer, wine, fruit, meat, jewelry, weapons,
and other small items. The Egyptian economy
obviously profited hugely from this trade, since
much of what they brought back to Egypt was
distributed to temples, private individuals, and
the Byblos trade, or was given in exchanges of
gifts with foreign rulers.
Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition reestablished
an important and lucrative trade. It is possible
that Egypt exercised some form of authority over
Punt, although the essential character of their relationship
remained mercantile, rather than political.
It would have been nearly impossible to
rule Punt effectively from such a distance. On the
other hand, the fact that Punt was located too far
away to pose a threat to Egypt was probably very
attractive to the Egyptians, who were always concerned
about foreign invasion. Distance also
added an element of fascination and adventure to
the association. Quite simply, the Egyptians felt
that they were traveling “to the ends of Earth“ in
order to gain untold riches and arcane knowl-
MYTHS REVEALED AS TRUTH:
WHEN THE EXPERTS ARE WRONG
Exploration
& Discovery
2000 B.C.
to A.D. 699
Agreat deal of what is known today about the ancient world
represents the triumph of the amateur over the professional, or
of what first seemed to be myth over apparent scientific skepticism.
An example of the former was the 1952 translation of the
Mycenaean script known as Linear B, an effort begun by an architect
named Michael Ventris (1922-1956). Though he completed his translation
with the help of a professional linguist, John Chadwick, much
of the deciphering work had already been completed by Ventris—
who, though knowledgeable in areas such as statistical analysis, was
far from an expert on Mycenae.
As for the idea of seeming myth triumphing over skepticism, a
variety of information related in the Bible has turned out to be
accurate historical data. At one point historians, rejecting the biblical
Creation story, were ready to throw out the proverbial baby with the
bath water, rejecting David and Solomon—not to mention Abraham
and Moses—as figures no more historical than Achilles or Heracles.
In fact it now appears that virtually all biblical figures after Noah were
real human beings.
A particularly interesting case was that of the Hittites of Asia
Minor, who, though mentioned in the Bible, were unknown to their
next-door neighbors in Greece. In the nineteenth century,
archaeologists established the Hittite civilization as historical fact,
and discovered the reason why the Greeks had never heard of them:
the Hittites disappeared in c. 1200 B.C., about the time Mycenaean
Greece was plunged into a dark age following the Dorian invasion.
One story that brings together all the above threads— mythology
as fact, the brilliant amateur, and the layers of history in Greece and
Asia Minor—is that of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890). Among the
few joys of his poverty-stricken childhood had been a book of tales
about the Trojan War, which everyone at the time assumed to be a
myth. But not Schliemann: after amassing a great deal of wealth as a
merchant, he set off for Turkey to find the ancient home of the Trojans.
Not only did he discover Troy (under present-day Hissarlik), but he
eventually uncovered much of Mycenae.
JUDSON KNIGHT
S C I E N C E A N D I T S T I M E S V O L U M E 1
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