Poenit

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The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Puntite, Punt, Pont, Phunt, Poenit, Poenite, Phut, and Put were all terms given by near eastern civilizations to one or other of two nations which were involved in much ancient trade.

• The Phoenicians, and their colonies such as Carthage. The name comes from Greek "phoinix", which means "red", and likely refers to the trade in the valuable purple dye got from the murex mollusc.
• The Land of Punt, which was somewhere on the west coast of the Red Sea.

Early Egyptian records seem constant in indicating the "Land of Punt" south of Nubia; although exactly where is still uncertain.

Subsequently there persist dual references for "Put" both to this location and also to a Mediterranean region and Libya (a term which could refer to almost anywhere in North Africa besides Egypt). The latter references may refer to colonies of the Phoenicians, known to the Hebrews as "Phut".

In his first century AD historical account Josephus thus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut: but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos." AotJ I:6.

Some Egyptologists (e.g. Flinders Petrie) have gone further and postulated that perhaps the Mediterranean Phoenicians even originated in Punt, later established the first major Lower Egyptian port of Buto as well as Byblos and from there spread their influence in the Mediterranean. But this is not currently a mainstream view.