UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Carthaginian period
family in the middle of the fifthcentury and the statesman also responsible
for Carthaginian expansion elsewhere in Africa. The difficulties of interpretation
preclude a full discussion; in general it may be said that in view
of the known Carthaginian policy of excluding all other traders from the
area the likelihood of their producing for public view a report which was
in any way revealing is unlikely. Furthermore the document does not
even mention any purpose for the voyage. The most concrete part deals
with the planting of settlements on the Moroccan coast. That there were
such settlements is known; Lixus, at the mouth of the Oued Loukkos,
was certainly one - it is not mentioned by Hanno - and the later history
of the tribes of the area (see below) shows the cultural influence of Carthage.
The most southerly settlement mentioned in the report is called Cerne,
generally identified with Hern Island at the mouth of the Rio de Oro.
This name is mentioned in another Greek geographical source known as
Pseudo-Scylax of about —338. 'At Cerne, the Phoenicians [i.e. Carthaginians]
anchor their gauloi as their merchant ships are called and pitch
tents on the island. After unloading their goods they take them to the
mainland in small boats; there live Ethiopians with whom they trade.
In exchange for their goods they acquire the skins of deer, lions and
leopards, elephant hides and tusks ... the Phoenicians bring perfume,
Egyptian stones [? faience] and Athenian pottery and jars.' Again there
is no mention of gold; Cerne appears as an anchorage rather than a
settlement. The goods brought from Carthage look correct, but the
acquisition of wild animal skins has been doubted on the grounds that
these were obtained much nearer Carthage. Hanno's report concludes with
an account of two voyages even farther south than Cerne, with graphic
descriptions of ferocious inhabitants, drums in the night and rivers of fire,
presumably designed to inspire alarm among any possible competitors.
The southern limit of the voyage has been put as far distant as Mount
Cameroon, but this seems altogether too far. The most southerly point
producing archaeological evidence of Carthaginian visits is Mogador, but
the evidence is of seasonal visits confined to the sixth century and it cannot
be identified with any place in the report.
If gold was the objective, it is remarkable that all knowledge of the
trade disappeared with the fall of Carthage even though some settlements
on the Moroccan coast survived. The Greek historian Polybius sailed
beyond Cerne after —146 but discovered nothing worthwhile, and in the
first century of our era the Roman writer Pliny wrote of the report of Hanno,
'many Greeks and Romans on the basis of it tell of many fabulous things
and of many foundations of cities of which in fact neither memory nor
trace remain'. Oddly enough Mogador began to be visited again by sailors
from the Roman client state of Mauretania (see below), but it seems that
fish rather than gold was the purpose.
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