[lbo-talk] 4,000-year-old ships found in Red Sea

[uvj at vsnl.com]

The Asian Age
http://www.asianage.com/

29 January 2006

News Makers

4,000-year-old ships found in Red Sea

- By AP

Cairo: An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the remains of 
4,000-year-old ships that used to carry cargo between Pharaonic Egypt and 
the mysterious, exotic land of Punt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has 
announced.

The ships' remains were found during a five-year excavation of five caves 
south of the Red Sea port of Safaga, about 475 km
southeast of Cairo, the chairman of the supreme council, Zahi Hawass, said 
in a statement late on Thursday. The archaeologists, who came from Boston 
and East Naples universities, found Pharaonic seals from the era of 
Sankhkare Mentuhotep III, one of seven rulers of the 11th dynasty, which 
lasted from about 2133 BC to 1991 BC.

They also found wooden boxes, covered with gypsum, bearing the inscription 
"Wonders of the land of Punt."

For the ancient Egyptians, Punt was a source of prized goods such as 
incense, ivory, ebony, gum and the hides of giraffes and
panthers that were worn by temple priests.

But the precise location of Punt remains a mystery. Historians have 
variously placed it in Sudan, Eritrea or Somalia.