Decipher the 'utopia' journey of General Hannibal

In 218 BC, the famous Carthage general Hannibal joined 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants crossed the Alps, making a "1-0-2" feat in history.

After thousands of years of hard work, scientists still have not been able to give an accurate answer on the route that the famous grandmaster Hannibal and the cavalry team cross the Alps (Alps).

The miracle has "1-0-2" in the history of General Hannibal and the cavalry through the Alps.

However, now, perhaps everything has been "clarified" . All thanks to modern science and a significant contributing factor . ancient horse manure.

Alps

The Alps are one of Europe's largest and longest mountain ranges, running through seven countries including Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany and France.

The mountain range was probably formed in the late Cretaceous period, when the African and Asian Eurasian plaques attracted each other from southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayas.

Alps - One of the longest mountain ranges in Europe.

The collision caused the marine sedimentary rocks to be raised by fracture activities and folds forming high mountains like Mont Blanc and Matterhorn.

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain of 4.810 m Alps, located along the border of France-Italy, the Alps region is mainly about 4000 m high peaks, so people often call them names " four-thousanders ".

Alps have a crescent-shaped structure, with a length of 800 km from east to west and 200 km wide. The average height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km.

An Italian organization named SOIUSA, based on geological elements and topographic maps divided Alps into Ligurian Alps, Maritime Alps, Cottian Alps, Dauphiné Alps, Graian Alps, Pennine Alps, Bernese Alps, Lepontine Alps, The Glarus Alps, and Appenzell Alps.

The height and size of the mountain range is influenced by the climate of Europe: In the high mountains, rainfall changes constantly and climatic conditions depend on specific areas.

Wildlife lives at an altitude of about 3400 m, and plants are scattered at different heights. Evidence of human life in the Alps may have occurred during the Paleolithic period.

A mummy found around 5,000 years old on a 1991 Austrian-Italian border glacier.

In 1800, Napoleon crossed one of the mountains of Apls with 40,000 soldiers. The 18th and 19th centuries were the beginning of a wave of conquests of the mountains of the Alps.

During World War II, Adolf Hitler also erected a blockhouse on the Bavarian Alps throughout the war.

And of course, we cannot fail to mention a miracle that happened on this longest mountain in Europe during the Second Punic War (218 BC). It was an event where the general Hannibal led a large army across the mighty Alps.

The "unimaginable" journey of the famous Hannibal through the Alps

Hannibal Barca (247 - 183 BC) is a general and military tactician of the Carthage Empire. His name Hannibal means " the joy of the Baal god" - the deity of the Carthagin religion, and the Barca family meaning " lightning ".

Excellent military portrait of Hannibal.

He is known for his feats during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) - one of three wars between Ancient Rome and Carthage.

Hannibal is one of the greatest generals in ancient history. He is a general with a brilliant, flexible, creative vision to set out actions to accomplish the objectives.

This grandmaster left the world military art with valuable experience in strategy and combat tactics.
Especially during this period, he led an army, consisting of 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants from Iberia through two Pyrenees and Alps into northern Italy.

This is one of the most outstanding achievements of the army in the ancient war because the Alps are considered to be an impossible natural boundary.

Hannibal accompanied war horses and battle elephants across the Alps.

And after more than 2,000 years of history, historians have been constantly studying the route that the army has passed, but there is no solid evidence yet.

A group of York University researchers from Toronto, Canada, led by Professor Bill Mahaney finally provided positive evidence of the route the army had taken.

They thought that the group had passed the pass for the Col de Traversette carriage. This narrow pass is located between a series of peaks located on the border southeast of Grenoble, France and southwest of Turin, Italy.

Col de Traversette Pass is located in the Alps.

These findings were published in Archaeometry.

Traversette Pass is about 3000m above sea level. To this day, it is still a hard gravel road.

In fact, a century ago, British biologist-scientist Sir Gavin de Beer made the assumption that this route was where the army passed. However, it almost did not receive any agreement from other scholars.

At that time, many scientists were inclined to the Col du Clapier route , about 2400m high and further north, but this path was less dangerous.

This assumption is mainly proposed in the works of the ancient and modern historian Livy. He lived in Padua about 200 years after this historic event took place.

However, throughout his life, he had not once officially gone to the place where he considered Hannibal and the army had passed.

Therefore, it can be said that what he recorded about this event was not realistic, but only a fantasy.

Determine this route thanks to . horse manure

Using the technology of combining genetic microbiological analysis, analyzing chemicals in the environment, pollen and other geographical techniques, scientists found a large amount of animal manure - may be horse manure - near the Col de Traversette area.

By analyzing the carbon isotope, the researchers determined this feces dates back to about 200 BC.

These piles are found in quagmire . Maybe those animals came down to the pool to bathe.

Quagmire on Traversette line.

The site was originally discovered during the geological expedition of the area, depicting the area's topographical features, including rock and snowslides. This coincided with the difficulties that Grand Master Hannibal had to overcome.

After the analysis of animal manure was found, we found that most of this stool belongs to the clostridia bacteria group - a Gram-positive bacillus, belonging to Firmicutes branch. This is also the main bacteria in horse manure (about 70%).

In other areas, the level of clostridia bacteria appears lower. Scientists can identify this bacterium because they can establish a specific gene sequence for this microorganism.

Discover the "unimaginable" journey of General Hannibal thanks to . horse manure

Scholars say these bacteria are not altered in the soil, and are still alive after thousands of years.

The question is: Why did the Carthage Empire's military military choose a difficult way to go? You want to create a miracle? Or does this excellent general have no other options?

Perhaps that bias was the best choice for him and the cavalry at that time, when Rome was staring and threatening Carthage.

At that time, Hannibal chose to cross the Col de Traversette Pass to avoid unexpected ambush from a Gaulish tribe in the area.

Is this finding interesting? However, it is still not completely certain that it is bacteria from horse manure, what if it is human feces?

Hannibal was famous for his affirmation: "We will either find, or create a path".

If you want to conclude with certainty, genetic analyzes need to expand the audience with other genes.

And scientists are also working on an extensive research program to study other bacteria samples taken from Traversette's quagmire, led by Professor Chris Allen.

They also found the parasite 's eggs - combined with intestinal tapeworm bacteria - that Traversette persists like short-lived follicles.

With this information, scientists hope to shed light on the emergence of war horses, war elephants and humans in the Traversette wetlands more than 2,000 years ago.

This is because with more genetic information, we can be more precise about the origin and perhaps even the geographic origins of some ancient monsters by comparing them with other studies. save other microorganisms .