ThoughtGallery.org > Public Lecture Series with Dr. Patrick Hunt–“Tracking Hannibal”

Public Lecture Series with Dr. Patrick Hunt–“Tracking Hannibal”

Tracking Hannibal: From Carthage Through Spain to the Alps, Italy and Beyond

Hannibal Barca’s legendary march to launch the Second Punic War serves as the foundation of his historical legacy as Rome’s greatest foe, yet the true route trod by his war elephants had never been confirmed. This lecture is not from an “armchair historian” but instead from “feet on the ground,” where Dr. Patrick Hunt led a ten-year National Geographic-sponsored field expedition to identify Hannibal’s actual trail. It is based on many years of additional field research where Dr. Hunt led archaeological teams for decades of mapping possible Hannibal routes from Cartagena to Saguntum, over the Ebro, Pyrenees, Gaul, Rhone crossing, the Alps, Po River Valley and Ticino and Trebia River battles, over the Apennines, Lake Trasimene battle, Campania, Apulia, Cannae battle, South Italy, Carthage, and the Zama Plain. Even tracing routes on Crete, in Lebanon, Anatolia, and the Sea of Marmora, to Hannibal’s last-stand fortress in Bithynia, where he took his own life to avoid Roman capture and humiliation.

Hunt has employed pioneering methodologies and technology to closely examine contexts where Hannibal is most likely to have been. Methods including GIS, photogrammetry, paleoclimatology, geomorphology, palynology, soil chemistry, lichenometry and forensic science have contributed to reconstructing Hannibal’s passage through the ancient terrain on several continents.

Ten years in the writing, Hunt’s well-received biography HANNIBAL was recently published by Simon and Schuster (2017). His teams have hiked over 30 alpine passes – some multiple times – and have also cycled from Avignon to the Alps along the Rhone-Isere-Arc Rivers. Based on Polybius, the best ancient source, Hunt believes it is possible to eliminate most suggested routes for Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps and he favors one most logical pass route.

Patrick Hunt is an award-winning archaeologist who has been teaching at Stanford University since 1993 with a Ph.D. from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, University of London (1991) in Archaeological Science. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1989 and author of 20 books. Hunt received the Persian Golden Lioness in 2008 in London for his work on Ancient Persia and was also in Iran in 2015 researching and lecturing on millennia of ancient Iranian engineering. He is often featured in documentaries for National Geographic, NOVA, PBS and other media including BBC Radio and other radio interviews.











When: Mon., Dec. 10, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Where: The Explorers Club
46 E. 70th St.
212-628-8383
Price: $25
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Tracking Hannibal: From Carthage Through Spain to the Alps, Italy and Beyond

Hannibal Barca’s legendary march to launch the Second Punic War serves as the foundation of his historical legacy as Rome’s greatest foe, yet the true route trod by his war elephants had never been confirmed. This lecture is not from an “armchair historian” but instead from “feet on the ground,” where Dr. Patrick Hunt led a ten-year National Geographic-sponsored field expedition to identify Hannibal’s actual trail. It is based on many years of additional field research where Dr. Hunt led archaeological teams for decades of mapping possible Hannibal routes from Cartagena to Saguntum, over the Ebro, Pyrenees, Gaul, Rhone crossing, the Alps, Po River Valley and Ticino and Trebia River battles, over the Apennines, Lake Trasimene battle, Campania, Apulia, Cannae battle, South Italy, Carthage, and the Zama Plain. Even tracing routes on Crete, in Lebanon, Anatolia, and the Sea of Marmora, to Hannibal’s last-stand fortress in Bithynia, where he took his own life to avoid Roman capture and humiliation.

Hunt has employed pioneering methodologies and technology to closely examine contexts where Hannibal is most likely to have been. Methods including GIS, photogrammetry, paleoclimatology, geomorphology, palynology, soil chemistry, lichenometry and forensic science have contributed to reconstructing Hannibal’s passage through the ancient terrain on several continents.

Ten years in the writing, Hunt’s well-received biography HANNIBAL was recently published by Simon and Schuster (2017). His teams have hiked over 30 alpine passes – some multiple times – and have also cycled from Avignon to the Alps along the Rhone-Isere-Arc Rivers. Based on Polybius, the best ancient source, Hunt believes it is possible to eliminate most suggested routes for Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps and he favors one most logical pass route.

Patrick Hunt is an award-winning archaeologist who has been teaching at Stanford University since 1993 with a Ph.D. from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, University of London (1991) in Archaeological Science. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1989 and author of 20 books. Hunt received the Persian Golden Lioness in 2008 in London for his work on Ancient Persia and was also in Iran in 2015 researching and lecturing on millennia of ancient Iranian engineering. He is often featured in documentaries for National Geographic, NOVA, PBS and other media including BBC Radio and other radio interviews.

Buy tickets/get more info now