"ancient trade center of Opone on the east coast of Africa was mentioned in the Periplus Maris Erythraei (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea), written by an anonymous Greek trade merchant about 40 AD. Archaeologists believe that the most likely location for this city is that called Ras Hafun, located in Somalia. Artifacts at Ras Hafun recovered by archaeologists led by Henry Wright of the University of Michigan have included Egyptian, Roman, and Arabian Gulf pottery."
"The Periplus Maris Erythraei, written probably in thc
latter half of the first century AD, is a guide for
merchants trading with eastern Africa, Arabia, and
India. The anonymous author lists the various ports
along the routes, indicating for each the facilities to be
found and the objects of trade to be bought or sold
there.'
A few of the ports arc well known and can be
identified with certainty. Many which are also mentioned other writers, such as Strabo or Ptolemy, can
be identified with varying degrees of certainty. The
most difficult are those that occur only in thc Periplus.
One such is Tabai, on the African tradc route.
This route took off from Myos Hormos or Berenice,
ran south down the Rcd Sea, east along the northern
coast of Somalia (Barbaria in the author's terminology),
and then south again along the east coast of Africa.
Chaptcrs 12-13 report on the easternmost part of the
Somalia coast:"
prove that puntland today is indeed the ancient land of punt?
)
