When legend, history and science rhyme: Hannibal’s war elephants as an explanation to large vertebrate skeletons found in Italy

Abstract

The actual nature of large vertebrate bones found in sedimentary deposits was a intriguing, debated and unanswered issues until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The fossil bones were interpreted in a number of fantastic ways, e.g. as remains of mythological giants, or bones of dragons killed by saints. These unrealistic notions progressively waned as the scientific advance in comparative anatomy allowed to a correct identification of the large bones as elephant remains. As a result, the question arose as the reason why elephants were present in the Italian peninsula (and in many other parts of Eurasia and America), in climatic conditions so different and in regions so far from the territories they inhabit nowadays. The most parsimonious hypothesis that these bones may represent the remains of elephants brought in Italy either by the legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca or by other commanders for military purposes had some success and diffusion even in Italy. This research aims to analyse the reason behind the success of this theory between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The hypothesis, critically examined and confuted by brilliant Italian researchers such as Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, was supported by several authors until the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.

Keywords:

• Elephant bones
• Pleistocene
• Italy
• myths
• Romans
• historical overview

Acknowledgements

The Editor, an anonymous reviewer and Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza are thanked for their corrections and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. Isabella Salvador is thanked for providing photographic material. The ‘Sacro Bosco di Bormarzo’ is warmly thanked for allowing the use of photographic material in this paper.