Pattanam is a coastal village in Kerala that is at the center of a significant archeological excavation. The finds from the archeological digs put Pattanam as a port town dating to around 1000 BCE at the very least, with clear maritime connections to many places across the Indian Ocean.¹
Remarkably, a chance mention of what appears to be the same name in an Egyptian papyrus of 18th century BCE could age Pattanam by around another 800 years: “on the eastern side of [the region called] Watene,” says the text, now stored in the British Museum as part of the Papyrus Ramesseum.² The same place name occurs on the north face of the east wing gate of the Temple at Karnak in Egypt, carved around 1270 BCE during the reign of Seti I.³ It occurs yet again around 230 BCE in several inscriptions carved on the pylons of the Temple at Edfu.⁴
The 18th century BCE text merely lists Watane without any further explanations. In the 12th century BCE inscriptions, it is sandwiched in a long list between place names presumably in Africa. But in the Edfu inscriptions of the Ptolemaic Era, it has more color. It is variously described as the land of incense, myrrh, and other marvelous products. In one particular inscription, the pharaoh is described as bringing Watane to the deity Horus, and “traversing the mountain paths of the riparian mountains in search of armor [for the deity].”⁵
The mountain paths could very well be in the Red Sea Mountains in Egypt running the length of the Red Sea coastline. But these mountains are not “riparian,” meaning “running along the banks of a river.” Because of the specific mention of Watane, the text suggests riparian mountains in Watane rather than in Egypt. While the topological reference matches the rugged Somalian coastline, where historians place Punt (and hence Watane) by majority consensus, there are no riparian mountains in Somalia either. Pattanam in Kerala however, sits near the mouth of the Periyar river in the foothills of the Sahyadri mountains running along the coast. It matches all the descriptions in the Edfu texts: it is a far-away source of incense, myrrh, marvelous products, and it is located near riparian mountains.
The sound [w] in Egyptian corresponds in some Malayalam words to [p], as here. Indeed, in Malayalam, [p] interchanges with [w] particularly in the middle of words and [w] interchanges with [m], which is the nasal form of [p].⁶ Thus, [w] and [p] are connected in Malayalam proper, so it is not surprising that Egyptian [w] corresponds to Malayalam [p].
It is exciting to think that Watane of the 18th century BCE Egyptian text is the Pattanam in Kerala, for if so, it provides incredibly strong evidence of ancient maritime connections between the two lands.
Notes
[1] Cherian, P.J. 2011. “Pattanam Archeological Site: The Wharf Context and the Maritime Exchanges.” Proceedings of The 2011 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage, available at http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/26d829c7ee7983165dbfb9234469cf51.pdf (accessed August 27, 2023)
[2] Watane wtn.t ‘a place in Punt.’ Gunnar Sperveslage, with contributions by Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Peter Dils, Billy Böhm, Lutz Popko, Sentence ID IBYBlk9wZeAUDUXzq5aBJQ7DR8Y <https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/sentence/IBYBlk9wZeAUDUXzq5aBJQ7DR8Y>, in: Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.0.2.1, 8/8/2023, ed. by Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning on behalf of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils on behalf of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (accessed: 8/27/2023)
[3] Ingelore Hafemann, with contributions by Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Sentence ID IBUBdyoQdpv0IUick1RD1FdkhV0 <https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/sentence/IBUBdyoQdpv0IUick1RD1FdkhV0>, in: Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.0.2.1, 8/8/2023, ed. by Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning on behalf of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils on behalf of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (accessed: 8/27/2023)
[4] https://aaew.bbaw.de/tla/servlet/GetTextDetails?tc=23228.
[5] https://aaew.bbaw.de/tla/servlet/GetTextDetails?tc=25598.
[6] Gundert, Hermann. 1872. Malayalam and English Dictionary (Mangalore: C. Stolz)
