Monday, July 4, 2022

Marching an Elephant Across the Mountains

 From The Big Think:

Another classic example of experimental archaeology is the British Alpine Hannibal Expedition. Hannibal was a general of Carthage (located in modern-day Tunisia), an ancient Mediterranean civilization that rivaled Rome for several centuries before the birth of Christ. Hannibal’s reputation as one of the greatest generals in history was built upon his command of an army that spent 15 years dominating large portions of the Italian peninsula, crushing Roman armies sent to stop them.

Hannibal recruited or coerced men from various localities and paid mercenaries, but a central piece of his army was a corps of terrifying war elephants. These creatures, or their ancestors, originated in the North African holdings of Carthage. Hannibal initially formed his army and elephant corps in southern Spain, and marched over land through southern France. The Romans hoped to stop him by placing troops along the sane coastal route to Italy. Hannibal fooled them by instead undertaking a crazy route across the Alps.

How did Hannibal get his elephants through the high mountains? The hulking creatures must have used a narrow route through the 7000-foot-high passes. Such a feat might be considered a myth if not for subsequent well-documented stompings of Romans by war elephants. Roman historians had various theories. Carthaginian histories were largely lost or destroyed when Rome later annihilated their civilization. Twentieth century scholars debated the question in books and newspaper articles. (Read more.)

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