Properly inform definition12/9/2023 ![]() "I remember going to Egypt for the first time and just being astounded by the number of baboons being depicted on temple walls, or in the tombs of nobles you'd see large statues of baboons at various temples. They raid your crops, they destroy your livelihood, they are harbingers of disease," Dominy said. And it's because, in general, baboons are not well-liked. "Throughout Africa, you'll see loads of elephants and giraffes, and all kinds of products representing animals, but very rarely baboons. "It's so spot on, how they hold the postures, and the different behaviors - they must have observed them in their natural habitats, but we don't know why, or how." Pesky baboons, a godly embodimentĪnthropologist Nathaniel Dominy from Dartmouth College, who collaborated with Kopp on the study, told Insider that baboons are often conspicuously missing from African artworks of the time due to their reputation as pests in their natural habitats but they hold special significance in Egypt. ![]() "From the way that they're presented in the artwork, they must have observed the baboons in their natural habitat," Kopp said. So, too, is precisely how Egyptians came to know of baboons in the first place since they weren't native to the region. Kopp told Insider the exact methods behind importing the primates to Egypt, raising them, and then eventually mummifying them remains unclear. Specimen EA 6738, held by the British Museum: Skull of a mummified baboon recovered from Thebes, Egypt and connected isotopically to Eritrea/Ethiopia/Somalia. We hypothesize that Punt and Adulis are two different names for the same place that were used at different points in time," Kopp wrote in a research paper published earlier this month, adding: "It was only after we put our biological findings in the context of historical research that the story really came together." Geographically, however, it fits Adulis, a location that, centuries later, was known as a trading place, also for primates. "The specimen we studied fits chronologically with the last known expeditions to Punt. ![]() The exact location of Punt, Kopp told Insider, has long puzzled researchers due to references to the town being found in significant texts and artwork but not found on existing maps. However, Kopp's baboon was preserved long before the ancient city of Adulis flourished as a key trading center and port, where animals like baboons and leopards were frequently bought and sold.Īncient texts from the same time period suggest Kopp's baboon likely originated in a city called Punt. The genetics of Kopp's baboon were compared to another sample that originated from the coastal region in Eritrea, where, in ancient times, the port of Adulis was likely located. The mummy Kopp extracted DNA from - estimated to date back to between 800 and 500 BCE - corroborated findings that the Horn of Africa was the baboons' region of origin when compared with a similar sample that had previously been unearthed. Kopp's discovery is the first time ancient DNA from a mummified non-human primate has successfully been analyzed to this extent. After testing ten different specimens and being able to extract DNA from just a single one, Gisela Kopp, a biologist from the University of Konstanz, utilized a new method of genetic analysis on DNA from the specimen to trace its origins. ![]() Science has finally advanced enough to answer some lingering questions about the baboons. The creatures were missing their ferocious canine teeth, but, unlike other mummified baboon specimens found from the same timeframe, they were neither entombed with noblemen of the time nor found in group catacombs, raising questions for decades about how they got there - and why. The mummified hamadryas baboons were found in 1905, eroding out of the valley of the monkeys - an archaeological site at Luxor's western bank of the Nile known for its depictions of baboons on tomb walls discovered nearby. In studying the curious creatures, researchers on the project also believe they have revealed new evidence that Punt and Adulis, two legendary trading regions that shaped the world's economic and geopolitical structure, may have been the same place in the coastal region in Eritrea- separated by a thousand years of history. New research on the mysterious remains of mummified baboons, found far from their natural habitat over a hundred years ago in Egypt, has shed light on the sacred significance of the primates in the ancient Arabian Peninsula. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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