The Land of PuntAuthor(s): William Stevenson SmithSource: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 1 (1962), pp. 59-60Published by: American Research Center in EgyptStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000859 .Accessed: 01/02/2011 17:34

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The Land of Punt William Stevenson Smith

figure (page 61)

In conjunction with Nicholas Millet's account1 of the newly recovered block from the remarkable depiction of the land of Punt as seen by Queen Hatshepsut's expedition, it seems appropriate to present here an essay at reconstructing the original appearance of the whole scene which is interesting for the way in which it is composed as well as for its wealth of factual detail. A number of blocks from the ruined upper part of the wall were published as separate fragments on Plates 70 and 71 in Vol. Ill of Edouard Naville's The Temple of Deir El Bahari in 1898. These were photographed by the Fremdvb'lker expedition instigated by the great German historian Eduard Meyer.2 Other important fragments were found in the course of the new work undertaken by the Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and built into the upper part of the south wall of the Punt Colonnade in the reconstruction of the temple which was carried out by the Egyptian De- partment of Antiquities during the 1930's. These new pieces do not seem to have been photographed in detail and are rather difficult to study in position since they are set at a considerable height from the floor of the colonnade which forms the southern half of the middle terrace of the great building designed by the architect Senmut. However, several years ago, Charles F. Nims kindly provided two photographs which together comprise the whole wall on a small scale. It was found possible to enlarge these prints to the same size as that of the lower part of the wall reproduced on Naville's PL 69 and similarly to reduce the fragments on his PL 70 to the same scale. While it has not been possible to do justice to the fine draughtsmanship of the original in tracing the tiny details on the photographs, it is hoped that a fair state of accuracy has been achieved. A few slight errors which the photographs reveal in Naville's plates could not be corrected. The rather sketchy drawing made for Mariette's3 publication of 1877 proved difficult to adjust to the blank spaces caused by the subsequent removal of several blocks in the lowest two registers. The men bringing offerings in the second register, for example, are too tall for the other figures and do not adequately occupy the width of the gap. The second and third men on this block have been roughly altered to show that they are really carrying sacks on their shoulders, with their arms in a different position from that shown by Marie tte. They are now represented on the wall by a plaster cast of the block which is in the Cairo Museum, along with that containing the figure of the fat wife of the chieftain of Punt in front of them and that portraying her saddled donkey in the register below. To this group of important pieces in Cairo is now to be added the block with the three men following the donkey in the lowest register as reported in Mr. Millet's article. For the second representation of the chief's family in the lowest register we are still entirely dependent upon Mariette's drawing and it was thought better to make use of this drawing for all the portions missing from Naville's record of the two processions of figures.

Large blanks still remain in the upper portion of the wall but by studying the way in which the artist has alternated the different kinds of trees it is possible to suggest the general system of his composition and

1 Supra pp. 55 ff. 2 Catalogue of photographs: Berichten der Berliner Akademie (191 3) 769 ff. Through the courtesy of Dr. Henry Fischer,

copies of the pertinent reliefs were made available to me from the set of photographs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

3 A. Mariette Bey, Deir el Bahari, pl. 5; L. Klebs, Die Reliefs und Malerein des Neuen Reiches 199, fig. 125.

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to rearrange the existing fragments in a more plausible manner than that in which some of them have been set in the modern masonry. The cattle under the incense trees and the rarely portrayed rhinoceros confront- ing a mother monkey carrying her young, which are reproduced here for the first time, evidently belong to the top register. In the second register men are carrying ebony logs away from the felled tree in the center. An inscription in the third register indicates that ebony trees are also being cut down there. The men in the fourth register are gathering the fragrant gum of the frankincense tree, and at the right of the first, third and fourth registers the live trees are being carried in baskets slung on poles toward the ships which areiDeing loaded on the adjoining wall for the return journey to Egypt. A strip of water separates this upper part of the scene from the more familiar subject matter of the two lowest registers. At the bottom of the wall, the inhabitants of Punt are issuing from their village to receive the Egyptian expedition which has debarked from the ships which are shown landing on the adjoining portion of the west wall. In the strip above, the leader of Hatshepsut's men stands in front of his tent on the shore to accept the gifts which are being brought to him by the friendly Puntites.

The right side of the wall slopes up at an angle, making the top register considerably wider than the lowest one. This is due to the fact that the west wall of the colonnade forms the retaining wall of the upper terrace of the temple, the masonry being laid with a battered surface. The gradual widening of the registers produces a staggered effect in the arrangement of the groups of men carrying trees and logs on the right side of the composition. The variation in the number and kinds of trees, with the widely interspersed figures of men and animals and an occasional isolated dwelling, cleverly produces the impression of a forest in contrast to the more numerous figures grouped together in front of the village in the two lowest registers. The com- position follows the traditional Egyptian system of laying out the subject matter in long strips superimposed above one another. Nevertheless an air of actuality is produced by the convincing observation of the details of a specific locality. This is enhanced by the general movement toward the right which connects the action with that of the ships around the corner in the adjoining wall.

Not only is this an unusual portrayal of things seen in a foreign land, set down with considerable narrative skill but the sense of historical record is enhanced by a detail which may actually illustrate a state- ment made in the long columns of inscription which border the scene on the left but are not included on p. 61 . This is the shrine at the left end of the fourth register. Offerings are piled in front of it and here most prob- ably stood a figure of the Chieftain of Punt offering a cone of incense, although the arrangement of some of these fragments can only be rather vaguely suggested. The shrine may well have contained the statues of Queen Hatshepsut and Amon which are mentioned as having been set up in Punt in the text which was brilliantly restored long ago by Kurt Sethe.4 Attention does not seem to have been drawn to the possible connection between this statement of the queen and the illustration supplied by her gifted artist.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

M£ 42(1905). 9i-99-

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