Hannibal route through the Alps: A puzzle with more than 2000 years

IDL and Departamento de Geologia researcher Pedro J. M. Costa was part of the international team that determined the exact route used around 220 BC by the brilliant general Hannibal (for many the most ingenious military in history).Romans had assumed the Alps created a secure natural barrier against invasion. However, Hannibal and its army smashed apart the Roman forces with its army of 37 elephants, 15000 horses and 30000 men. One question remained for centuries: how did the Carthaginian general and his army reach Italy? Where was the route used to cross the Alps?The international team was lead by Jubilate Professor William Mahaney (York University, Toronto, Canada), with collaborators from Ireland, UK, Canada, USA, France and Portugal. Mahaney’s expertise in Geomorphology were crucial to establish sites to be surveyed. Field work was conducted in June 2011 and in one location (Col de la Traversette) samples provided conclusive evidences regarding the passage of Hannibal’s Army. Chemical and biological studies were conducted by the Irish and UK group while stratighraphic and sedimentological studies were conducted by a team that included IDL’s researcher Pedro Costa.The results of this collaboration resulted in 3 papers (2 of which published in Archaeometry) and a wide media coverage including BBC, CNN, The Guardian and the Portuguese newspaper Público, amongst others.According to Pedro Costa, future plans involve more extensive fieldwork (in the summer of 2017) to obtain further evidences of Hannibal’s passage through the Col de La Traversette.

Links to the articles:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/arcm.12231/fullhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/arcm.12228/fullSome of the links to the national and international media coverage:BBCThe GuardianCNNPúblicoRTP