 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(April 2024) |
Ancient Egyptian trade developed with the gradual creation of land and seatrade routes connecting theancient Egyptian civilization withancient India, theFertile Crescent,Arabia andSub-Saharan Africa.
EpipaleolithicNatufians carriedparthenocarpicfigs fromAfrica to the southeastern corner of theFertile Crescent,c. 10,000 BCE.[1] Latermigrations out of the Fertile Crescent would carry earlyagricultural practices to neighboring regions—westward toEurope andNorth Africa, northward toCrimea, and eastward toMongolia.[2][3][4][5][6]
The ancient people of theSahara imported domesticated animals fromAsia between 6000 and 4000 BCE. InNabta Playa by the end of the7th millennium BCE, prehistoric Egyptians had importedgoats andsheep fromSouthwest Asia.[7]
Foreignartifacts dating to the5th millennium BCE in theBadarian culture in Egypt indicate contact with distantSyria. Inpredynastic Egypt, by the beginning of the4th millennium BCE,ancient Egyptians inMaadi were importingpottery[8] as well asconstruction ideas fromCanaan.
By the 4th millennium BCEshipping was well established, and thedonkey and possibly thedromedary had been domesticated. Domestication of theBactrian camel and use of thehorse fortransport then followed. Charcoal samples found in the tombs ofNekhen, which were dated to theNaqada I and II periods, have been identified ascedar fromLebanon.[9]Predynastic Egyptians of theNaqada I period also importedobsidian fromEthiopia, used to shapeblades and other objects fromflakes.[10] The Naqadans traded withNubia to the south, the oases of thewestern desert to the west, and the cultures of theeastern Mediterranean to the east.[11]
Pottery and otherartifacts from theLevant that date to the Naqadan era have been found inancient Egypt.[14] Egyptian artifacts dating to this era have been found inCanaan[15] and other regions of theNear East, includingTell Brak[16],Uruk andSusa[17] inMesopotamia.Tell es-Sakan was an Egyptian settlement in the southern Levant (present-day Palestine) and acted as a trading post for goods travelling between the region and Egypt.[18]
By the second half of the 4th millennium BCE, the gemstonelapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world—Badakhshan, in what is now northeasternAfghanistan—as far as Mesopotamia andEgypt.[19]
The overland route through theWadi Hammamat from theNile to theRed Sea was known as early aspredynastic times;[20] drawings depicting Egyptianreed boats have been found along the path dating to 4000 BCE.[21] Ancientcities dating to theFirst Dynasty of Egypt arose along both its Nile andRed Sea junctions,[20] testifying to the route's ancient popularity. It became a major route fromThebes to the Red Sea port ofElim, where travelers then moved on to either Asia, Arabia or theHorn of Africa.[20] Records exist documenting knowledge of the route amongSenusret I, Seti,Ramesses IV and also, later, theRoman Empire, especially for mining.[22]
TheDarb el-Arbain trade route, passing throughKharga in the south andAsyut in the north, was used from as early as theOld Kingdom of Egypt for the transport and trade of gold,ivory, spices, wheat, animals and plants.[23] Later,Ancient Romans would protect the route by lining it with varied forts and small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation.[24] Described byHerodotus as a road "traversed ... in forty days", it became by his time an important land route facilitating trade betweenNubia and Egypt.[25] Its maximum extent was northward fromKobbei, 25 miles north ofal-Fashir, passing through the desert, through Bir Natrum andWadi Howar, and ending in Egypt.[26]
Shipbuilding was known to the Ancient Egyptians as early as 3000 BCE,[27][28] and perhaps earlier.[28] Ancient Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into aship hull, with woven straps used to lash the planks together,[27] andreeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams.[27] TheArchaeological Institute of America reports[27] that the earliest dated ship—75 feet long, dating to 3000 BCE[28]—may have possibly belonged toPharaoh Aha.[28]
An Egyptian colony stationed in southernCanaan dates to slightly before the First Dynasty.[29]Narmer had Egyptian pottery produced in Canaan—with his name stamped on vessels—and exported back to Egypt,[30] from regions such asArad,En Besor,Rafiah, andTel Erani.[30] In 1994, excavators discovered an incised ceramicshard with theserekh sign of Narmer, dating to c. 3000 BCE. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the Nile valley toPalestine.Due to Egypt's climate, wine was very rare and nearly impossible to produce within the limits of Egypt. In order to obtain wine, Egyptians had to import it from Greece, Phoenicia, and Palestine. These early friendships played a key role in Egypt's ability to conduct trade and acquire goods that were needed.[31]
ThePalermo stone mentions KingSneferu of theFourth Dynasty sending ships to import high-qualitycedar fromLebanon. In one scene in the pyramid of PharaohSahure of theFifth Dynasty, Egyptians are returning with huge cedar trees. Sahure's name is found stamped on a thin piece of gold on aLebanon chair, and 5th dynastycartouches were found in Lebanonstone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depictSyrian bears. ThePalermo stone also mentions expeditions toSinai as well as to thediorite quarries northwest ofAbu Simbel.[citation needed]
The oldest known expedition to theLand of Punt was organized by Sahure, which apparently yielded a quantity ofmyrrh, along withmalachite andelectrum. Around 1950 BCE, in the reign ofMentuhotep III, an officer namedHennu made one or more voyages to Punt. In the 15th century BCE,Nehsi conducted a very famous expedition for QueenHatshepsut to obtainmyrrh; a report of that voyage survives on a relief in Hatshepsut's funerary temple atDeir el-Bahri. Several of her successors, includingThutmoses III, also organized expeditions to Punt.[citation needed]
The legendarySesostris (likely either PharaohSenusret II orSenusret III of theTwelfth Dynasty of Egypt[32][33]) is said to have started work on an ancient"Suez" Canal joining theRiver Nile with theRed Sea. This ancient account is corroborated byAristotle,Pliny the Elder, andStrabo.[34]
None of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.[35]
165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.[36]
Remnants of an ancient west–east canal, running through the ancient Egyptian cities ofBubastis,Pi-Ramesses, andPithom were discovered byNapoleon Bonaparte and his cadre of engineers and cartographers in 1799.[37][38][39][40][41] Other evidence seems to indicate the existence of an ancient canal around the 13th century BC, during the time of Ramesses II.[42][43][44][45][46] Later construction efforts continued during the reigns ofNecho II,Darius I of Persia andPtolemy II Philadelphus.
Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea—a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian—the length of which is four days' journey, and the width is such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins the Red Sea.[47]
This [the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea] was begun by Necho II [610 BCE – 595 BCE], and completed by Darius I, who set up stelae c. 490 [BCE], ... and later restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Trajan and Hadrian, and Amr ibn el-'Asi, the Muslim conqueror of Egypt. Its length fromTell el-Maskhuta to Suez was about 85 km (52.82 mi).[48]
Shipping over the Nile River and fromOld Cairo and throughSuez continued further through the efforts of either'Amr ibn al-'As,[42]Omar,[38] orTrajan.[38][42] TheAbbasidCaliphal-Mansur is said to have ordered this ancient canal closed so as to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.[38][42]
