ABSTRACT
For over thirteen centuries (c. 2500–1170 Bc) the historical and other records from ancient Egypt bear witness to the existence of a territory and people located in east Africa whose name is usually rendered as ‘Punt’ in most modern writings. Normal Egyptian hieroglyphic script gives only the consonantal framework of the words that it reproduces — P-w-n-t, whose real pronunciation remains unknown to us today (conceivably *Pewanet or *Epwonat).
