Sirfiroth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
... > such as Dr. Adolf Erman
> (1854-1937) author of Life in ancient Egypt and A
> handbook of Egyptian Religion, "says that the
> persons who were responsible for a highly
> developed Egyptian civilization were from Punt, an
> Asiatic country, a description of which is
> unveiled by this scholar from the old legends - a
> distant country washed by the great seas, full of
> valleys, incense, balsum, precious metals and
> stones; rich in animals, cheetahs, panthers,
> dog-headed apes and long tailed monkeys, winged
> creatures with strange feathers to fly up to the
> boughs of wonderful trees, especially the incense
> tree and the coconut trees."

I have no doubt he believed this. Consider the time period when he was working -- the period in time when we were beginning to translate the language fully and when methodological archaeological study was beginning. The books of that time are full of what we now know to be errors.

Dog-headed apes, by the way, are the baboons... and they live in Africa and Arabia:
[animals.nationalgeographic.com]

Material found since his heyday leads most to believe that Punt was in Ethiopia.

The particular type of baboon associated with Thoth is an African animal.
[en.wikipedia.org]

> "Dr. Erman further says that analyzing the
> Egyptian legends makes it clear that from Punt the
> heavenly beings headed by Amen, Horus and Hather,
> passed into the Nile valley...To this same country
> belongs that idol of Bes, the ancient figure of
> the deity in the Land of Punt"

Again, they had scant material and some of it was very heavily influenced by "This looks just like *this modern thing* and therefore it must be the same. Since we don't know precisely where Punt is and don't have an archaeology of it, his statement that Hathor Amun, and Horus came from Punt is without foundation.

> Louis Jacolliot has written:
> “Egypt received from India, by Manes or Manu, its
> social institutions and laws, which resulted in
> division of the people into four castes, and
> placing the priest in the first rank; in the
> second, kings; then traders and artisans; and last
> in the social scale, the proletaire – the menial
> almost a slave.”

Which wouldn't be correct, actually. The king was divine and worshiped as a god. The nobles also had a place in this (not equivalent to kings or priests) and there were quite a few different types of priests (some very lowly.) Scribes held an important place in society (quite high status).

> These statements would naturally leads one to
> believe social definition must predate the
> Egyptian culture, possibly as far back as Indus
> Civilization days, circa 5500 BCE-4000 BCE.

If it were correct... actually it still wouldn't lead to that. What you have to show is considerable trade and exchange between the two civilizations. A good (ancient) example is the Babylonians and the Hebrews.

> If
> social definition had been conveyed to the
> developing culture of Egypt from another culture
> subsequent to that date, it surely would have
> influence development, because the Egyptians would
> have incorporated such important information into
> their society of calendar maintenance and land
> assessment.

More than that, it would have meant that they built the same style buildings, exchanged goods for a long time, and one would have ruled over the other. This would result in borrow words and a changing of the language... as well as Egyptian goods showing up all over India. Names would show an obvious influence (as they do in the Greek period, where it's easy to tell which priests are from Greek families and which from Egyptian ones.) Pottery and jewelry techniques would be shared.

In short, there's a thousand other evidences and it would be very clear that the Harappans had been the seed culture for the Middle East... because in order to get to Egypt they also had to get through Mesopotamia and the Babylonians and hundreds of other little cultures and would have left their mark around the entire area.

We see similar patterns here in North America with the Native American trade routes.

-- Byrd
Moderator, Hall of Ma'at