The earliest records of Ethiopia appear in
Ancient Egypt, during the
Old Kingdom period. Egyptian traders from about 3000 BC who refer to lands south of Nubia or Cush as
Punt and Yam. The Ancient Egyptians were in possession of
myrrh (found in Punt) as early as the First or Second Dynasties, which
Richard Pankhurst interprets to indicate trade between the two countries extant from the beginning of Ancient Egypt's beginnings.
J. H. Breasted posited that this early trade relationship could have been realized through overland trade down the
Nile and its tributaries (i.e. the
Blue Nile and
Atbara). The
Greek historian and
geographer Agatharchides had documented ship-faring among the early
Egyptians: "During the prosperous period of the
Old Kingdom, between the
30th and
25th centuries B. C., the
river-routes were kept in order, and
Egyptian ships sailed the
Red Sea as far as the
myrrh-country."
[4]
The first known voyage to Punt occurred in the 25th century BC under the reign of
Pharaoh Sahure. The most famous expedition to Punt, however, comes during the reign of Queen
Hatshepsut probably around 1495 BC, as the expedition was recorded in detailed reliefs on the temple of
Deir el-Bahri at
Thebes. The inscriptions depict a trading group bringing back
myrrh trees, sacks of myrrh, elephant tusks, incense, gold, various fragmented wood, and exotic animals. Detailed information about these two nations is sparse, and there are many theories concerning their locations and the ethnic relationship of their peoples. The Egyptians sometimes called Punt land Ta-Netjeru, meaning "Land of the Gods," and considered it their place of origin.
[5]
The
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states the connection between
Egypt and Ethiopia is at least as early as the
Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt was very intimate, and beginning with
Piye, a ruler of the
Twenty-fifth dynasty, occasionally the two countries were under the same ruler. The capital of these two dynasties, however, was in the north of modern
Sudan, at
Napata.
Evidence of
Naqadan contacts include
obsidian from Ethiopia and the
Aegean.
[6]