HANG Newsletter - Royal Institute of Navigation

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Royal Institute of Navigation Hannibal crossing the Alps. Photo credit SAAP. I do not hesitat to say you, whose brain has such questions: I am chemist, but still pensioner; my favorite interest is the evolution of mankind in all its amazing spheres. I ask you for your help concerning my lacks in knowledge. In the discussions that followed nobody seemed to produce a more convincing answer than Terry Hayward who said… “I’m a simple soul but I have always thought that they ‘persuaded’ a local to show them the way” Our Director sent this suggestion to Dr Stenger so we leave the last word with Dr Stenger… Thank you very much for your answer and the work you have had to find it. Your answer is helpful for me to understand a litle bit more about the development of the civilisation. It seems, that trading has been a very important thing in "making" the streets through the continents and that this way of communication has grown in the development of our species in hundreds and thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is amazing for me, how they found their aim - to and fro. But I think, nobody knows, how many people died on doing such trips. Still I cannot understand the motivation of a person living peacefully in a community of perhaps a 100 people about 300.000 years ago, to leave this community, not knowing what is behind the next forrest, mountain or large river. Perhaps this is one of a lot of riddles, we cannot solve with our knowledge of today. Whatever, thank you very much for solving the problems with my English knowledge. I would be glad to read again an e-mail from you. Best wishes, especially for some nice Easter days. I know that what follows pre-dates aeronautics but I did find it interesting – please skip it if you feel HANG has a strict remit. The following was posted by Patrick Hunt who wrote “Hannibal in the Alps: Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project 1994-2006” One of the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project's most interesting on-going research foci is Hannibal in the Alps. Hannibal’s famous passage through the Alps in 218 BCE remains one of the most intrepid marches in history. Along with at least 25,000 surviving soldiers, hundreds if not thousands of pack animals and scores of elephants (although apparently only 37 survived the Page 8 of 16
Royal Institute of Navigation crossing), this surprising military manoeuvre was both bold and desperate and has inspired countless readers of ancient history in the intervening millennia. Because it was undertaken in late fall – which is early winter in these high Alps – the Pleiades constellation could be easily viewed at a certain recorded point in the night sky, a journey that would have been daunting even in the summer became all the more dramatic. As Polybius wrote: "After a journey of nine days, Hannibal gained the summit pass. He camped there and stayed for two days to rest the survivors of his army and wait for stragglers...As it was now almost the time for the setting of the Pleiades, snow had already settled on the summit...He noticed that his men were in a state of low morale for all that they had suffered and tried to cheer them up. He depended on the actual view of Italy, which lies so close under these mountains that when they are seen together, the Alps stand to Italy in the same way a citadel does to a city...He restored their spirits by showing them the plain of the Po..." Unfortunately, the specific name of the pass Hannibal used was never mentioned in any sources or presumably by the informant who may never have known its Celtic name anyway. Some of the Celts aided Hannibal and his Punic and mercenary army with guides and provisions; others were hostile and some may have tried to lead him into an Alpine trap, from which he escaped by clever resources and brave fortitude at some expense of men, animals and supplies to the surprise of both Celts and Romans. The Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project has attempted to track Hannibal since 1994, using near contemporary sources like Polybius (c150 BC) who claimed his informant’s account was directly compiled from one of Hannibal’s veterans who would have been very young during the march. Livy used Polybius and other possible sources nearly two centuries later. Livy adds some accurate comments about the improbability of some of the often-suggested northern Hannibal routes such as the Grand-St-Bernard pass then known as Poeninus. This route would have added far too many days to Hannibal's journey being so far northward and requiring Hannibal to travel all the way around Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). Our Stanford team has hiked over at least 15 Alpine passes, many on multiple occasions, and compared their present landmark features to the topographic details given in Polybius and Livy. Allowing for a modicum of some erosional and geomorphological change, it is still possible to find a few favourable candidates among the western Alpine passes (now between France and Italy) and at the same time eliminate many more passes as unsuitable based on the ancient historians’ narratives. Naturally, this also rests on several assumptions: that the informants of Polybius and others were accurate observers and honest in their recollections and that Hannibal himself was fairly well-informed (when not misinformed by Celts) and honest with his soldiers when he is reported to have made geographical statements. The most recent phase of the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project's Hannibal route research is published in a new book Alpine Archaeology (2007). Page 9 of 16
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HANG Newsletter - Royal Institute of Navigation

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