136 Ethiopia, ancient was conducted by Jean Chavaillon, N Chavaillon, F Hours, M Piperno, and others Another prominent anthropologist, Richard Leakey, has worked in the Omo river region of southwest Ethiopia and participated in much research in neighboring Kenya, where his father, Louis Leakey, was involved in many excavations It appears that some time between the eighth and sixth millennia b.c.e people were beginning to domesticate animals, and archaeological evidence has shown that by 5000 b.c.e communities were being formed in the Ethiopian highlands, and it seems probable that the languages started developing at this time Linguists attribute an ancient tongue, based on the modern AfroAsiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) languages, as developing later into the Cushitic and Semitic languages that are used today By 2000 b.c.e evidence of grain cultivation of cereals and the use of the plow, probably introduced from Sudan, and animal husbandry, have been found It is believed people during this period would have spoken Geez, a Semitic language that became common in Tigray, which is believed to be the origin of the modern Amharic and also Tigranya There were many early links between ancient Ethiopia and Egypt starting with Piye, a ruler of the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt (2500 b.c.e.), and there were occasions when the two countries were recorded as having the same ruler, whose capital was at Napata, north of modern-day Sudan Indeed, Pharaoh Sahure sent a voyage to the land of Punt during the Fifth Dynasty, and most scholars believe that this represents a part of modern-day Ethiopia, although some place Punt as being in modern-day Yemen or even as far south as Zanzibar, or even the Zambezi This expedition sent by Sahure returned with 80,000 measures of myrrh; 6,000 weights of electrum, an alloy made from silver and gold; and 2,600 “costly logs,” probably ebony The most famous expedition to Punt was that led by Queen Hatsehpsut in about 1495 b.c.e., according to inscriptions detailing it that have been found on the temple of Deir el-Bahri in Thebes The carvings show traders bringing back myrrh trees, as well as sacks of myrrh, incense, elephant tusks, gold, and also some exotic animals and exotic wood DA’AMAT From about 800 b.c.e., several kingdoms started to emerge in Ethiopia The first was the kingdom of Ethiopia is one of the earliest places inhabited by humankind Archaeological evidence shows that by 5000 b.c.e communities were forming in the Ethiopian highlands and by 2000 b.c.e cultivation of cereals, the use of the plow, and animal husbandry left traces