Friday, April 8, 2016

Where did Hannibal cross the Alps?
















Up until now, no physical evidence—like belt buckles or bones—have been found to indicate where Hannibal made his crossing. However, an international team of microbiologists have finally found something…solid. According to the two papers (first and second) in Archaeometry, the researchers believe Hannibal crossed the Alps via the Col de Traversette pass (~1.9 miles or 3000 meters above sea level), which spans between Grenoble, France, and Turin, Italy.
..."The deposition [of animal feces] lies within a churned-up mass from a 1-meter thick alluvial mire, produced by the constant movement of thousands of animals and humans,” said Dr. Chris Allen, from the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast, in a statement.
“Over 70 percent of the microbes in horse manure are from a group known as the Clostridia, that are very stable in soil - surviving for thousands of years. We found scientifically significant evidence of these same bugs in a genetic microbial signature precisely dating to the time of the Punic invasion."
Or in other words, the researchers found evidence of poop—a lot of it. Certainly enough to belong to the thousands of horses Hannibal had with him, and it's dated to the right time period. And if this discovery should prove to be the discovery of Hannibal’s route, this find is enormous.
...“If the site was affected by human–animal traffic, as the evidence indicates, there is every possibility that artifacts such as coins, belt buckles, daggers, equestrian fasteners and so on might have been buried in the mire. If such archaeological evidence can be found and definitively linked to Hannibal, it would answer the question of which route Hannibal and his army took into Italia.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113413480/horse-dung-hannibal-trail-alps-040516/#SzhBiYd1s0ICbPBG.99

13 comments:

edutcher said...

Wherever BA said, "Ain't gettin' on no elephant, Hannibal".

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Lovely walk

bagoh20 said...

There should be about 3 dozen dead elephants in that pass. Got to be some trace of that.

Methadras said...

So when he got there did he proclaim that he loved it when a plan comes together and lit a cigar or that he wanted a liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti?

Methadras said...

I wonder how soon calls for cultural appropriation will come from this discovery?

ricpic said...

I'm not about to go looking this up, but who was the Roman - Cicero? - who ended every speech in the Senate with "Carthago delenda est" -- Carthage must be destroyed?

Where's our Cicero in relation to the mortal Muslim threat? Okay, maybe not Mecca delenda est but at least Raqqa delenda est?

deborah said...

"I wonder if future generations will try to find the route of the invasion of Europe by migrants from the Muslim world. There certainly will be lost of feces and chopped off heads and raped bodies of natives."

They're further north than the first invasion.

deborah said...

Meth, yes, there's an inscription in Rome somewhere about that :)

ampersand said...

Why did the elephant cross the Alps?

deborah said...

To get to the bread and circuses?

ampersand said...

If he was a chicken he would have just crossed the road.

Christy said...

Brad Thor's Blowback imagines Hannibal with bio-weapons in his arsenal, lost in the Alps. Modern day agent must find the lost route, find the weapon and stop the Islamic terrorists from using a re-engineered version. While reading the book I spent many happy hours with Google Earth searching for possible routes through the mountains. Fun read and gave me new respect for Hannibal.

Wonder how the gut bacteria of elephants changed with an Alpine diet?

Trooper York said...

It was Cato.

That was before he became the driver for the Green Hornet.