How far did ancient Egyptian material culture reach?

[archaeologist]

It seems that the material culture, ie artifacts, architecture, inscriptions and similar from Ancient Egypt reached far into Nubia and Libya, but also into the Meditterannean area and the Levant. Egyptian or Egyptian styled artifacts can be found in places like Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Ibiza and other places. Even in Denmark Egyptian glass pearls have been found, and Egyptian objects have been found on sunken ships like the Uluburun wreckage.

How is is with findings of ancient Egyptian material culture in Africa beyond Sudan and Libya? Have for example any ancient Egyptian artifacts (like scarabs) been found in West Africa or Central Africa?


Scarab of Queen Nefertiti from the Uluburun shipwreck
off the coast of todays Turkey



Two cobalt-blue glass beads, found in 3,400-year-old graves in Denmark,
came from ancient Egypt. National Museum of Denmark

[Brandon S. Pilcher]

Supposedly they found Egyptian sculptures in the DR Congo at one point in time:

[anansi]

Yeah saw that sometime ago, and very possible remember the Ba-Twa who did the dances of the Gods, came from there and also the Gods Bes and perhaps Ptah as well


A man with a punt beard, wrapped up like a mummy, but with his hands free which grip a great staff made up of the symbols for life, stability, and power. Sometimes he wears a skullcap crown and stands on the hieroglyph for Maat.

Ptah was a creator god, the third highest god in Egypt. He was the god presiding over the Second Egyptian month, known as Paopi by Greek times. From a local god of craftsmen to the deity who crafted the universe and the other deities, Ptah was only overshadowed by the sun god Ra, and the hidden god Amun. He fashioned the universe through words of power and by thought, as well as creating different parts by hand. He helped the dead on their travels through the afterlife, allowing them to transform into his divine figure, or by building the boats on which they could travel. He was the one who allowed the dead to be like the living after death with the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. The Apis bull was his sacred animal, more of a representation of his soul on earth who gave fertility and rebirth to the people. He was an ancient god who the Egyptians worshiped through their long history.
egyptsearchreloaded.proboards.com/thread/1698/batwi-gods-kemet
Covered here^^

[archaeologist]

Wonder where the eventual Egyptian artifacts from Congo are now? Are they in a museum, or in the hands of some private collector? Would be interesting to see a photo of them, and some more information about the circumstances around the findings.

One can also add that objects can be moved from one culture to another also without direct contact but through one or several middle men, or intermediate cultures. Thus regarding the bronze age contacts between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, there is a debate if such contacts were direct or if material like amber, glass pearls or metals were moved around through down the line trade.

But trade routes can sometimes be long and sometimes they could probably bring people who lived far away into contact with each other.

Here is map I found in another thread which shows Roman and early Byzantine finds from Sahara and sub-Saharan West Africa. Would be interesting to see some corresponding maps with Egyptian finds.

[djehuti]

Unfortunately because archaeology is sorely lacking in much of Sub-Saharan Africa the data on ancient trade with Egypt in this region is not surprisingly also extremely limited. The one region we know had direct trade ties to Egypt is the Horn of Africa, but even this area yields very scant results at least until the actual site of Pwnt is discovered. We know it is somewhere in the region Abyssinia and Eritrea. Most of the Egyptian material found in the Horn dates to the Roman Period and is found in Axumite sites.

Here is a good paper on this: Punt and Aksum: Egypt and the Horn of Africa

I have read stories that ancient Egyptian artifacts were found in Somaliland (northern Somalia) but I haven't seen anything to confirm this just like the stories of Egyptian artifacts in the Congo.