Ancient dung helps scientists unlock Hannibal mystery

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/04/05/ancient-poop-helps-scientists-unlock-hannibal-mystery.html?cmpid=NL_SciTech/



James Rogers

Scientists may have unlocked one of the great puzzles of the ancient world, analyzing microbes from horse manure to discover where Hannibal and his army crossed the Alps.

The Carthaginian general famously led an army of 30,000 men, 37 elephants and more than 15,000 horses and mules to invade Italy. The audacious trek across the Alps occurred during the second Punic War, which lasted from 218 B.C. to 201 B.C.

However, Hannibal’s exact route across the Alps has been hotly debated by historians. Now, an international team of scientists have unearthed fascinating evidence from the remote Col de Traversette pass on the border between France and Italy.

Harnessing radiocarbon dating, microbial metagenome analysis, environmental chemistry and pollen analysis, the experts have shown that a “mass animal deposition” event occurred near the Col de Traversette in 218 B.C.

“You’re looking at a lot of horses -- as anybody that knows anything about horses will tell you, when horses drink, they have to defecate,” Chris Allen, senior lecturer in environmental microbiology at Queen’s University, Belfast, told FoxNews.com, explaining that scientists studied 3 feet of sediment beneath a large mire, or pond, for evidence of the horses’ manure.

More than 70 percent of the microbes in horse manure are from a group known as Clostridia that can survive in soil for thousands of years. Allen told FoxNews.com that scientists found a remarkable increase in the number and relative abundance of the bacteria in the sediment, suggesting that Hannibal’s army crossed the Alps at that specific point.

“Normally, we see these bacteria at quite low levels within soil, but, in this particular case, we found very high relative numbers,” he said. Scientists also noticed an increase in the number of bile salts that come from the gut, as well as a sharp change in the sediment’s pollen record. “The pollen analysis showed us that there was definitely a significant change in the deposition characteristics at the point Hannibal crossed the Alps,” explained Allen.

The microbiologist acknowledges that researchers were fortunate to find the mire, which dated back 8,000 years. Other mires in the area were less than 2,000 years old, so were unable to yield any information on Hannibal’s army.

At this stage, scientists are not sure how much Hannibal’s elephants have contributed to the evidence. “Basically we are looking at there likely being a lot more horse manure than elephant,” Allen explained. “But we don’t know yet.”

The project was a collaboration between Queen’s University, Toronto’s York University, Ireland’s Dublin City University, Estonia’s Tartu University and researchers in Canada, Portugal, France and the U.S. Professor Bill Mahaney of York University led the expedition to the Col de Traversette, with University of Toronto Associate Professor Sarah Finkelstein providing pollen analysis. Arizona-based radio carbon dating expert Alan West also participated.

The scientists’ findings, which are published in the journal Archaeometry, may even boost our understanding of modern bacteria, according to Allen. “There’s not a lot that we know about Clostridia over the last 2,000 years,” he said. “We hope that some of the information that we get from this may tell us about how these organisms have changed in the last 2,000 years and help us with medical discoveries.”

Oh,my,now Scientists are looking for ancient Elephant-Poop!
Wonder who is paying for that?

What a bunch of horse crap!

MORE. POOP studying

New artifacts suggest first humans colonized southeastern US 1,500yrs earlier than thought

The first humans that supposedly made their way from Siberia to North America via Alaska probably struggled through the perilous journey some 1,500 years earlier than previously thought, suggest artifacts recently retrieved from an underwater sinkhole.

A stone knife, mastodon bones, and other findings taken from a sinkhole in the Aucilla river, the so-called Page-Ladson site not far from Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, may indicate that colonization of this North American region started as long as 14,500 years ago, or even earlier.

The 60-meter (200ft) wide, 11-meter (35ft) deep sinkhole used to be a shallow pond that attracted wild animals to its fresh water, while probably providing “easy pickings” for hunters at the same time, Mike Waters of Texas A&M University in College Station said, explaining where the bones may have come from.

With constantly rising sea levels, the site is now filled with water, so the research required a group of divers that went right down to the bottom. Despite wearing headlights, it was still “as dark as the inside of a cow, literally no light at all,” said Jesse Halligan, an assistant professor of anthropology at Florida State University in Tallahassee and lead diving scientist, according to AP.

To establish the age of the ancient tools and bones, archaeologists studied mastodon dung that turned out to contain twigs fit to be analyzed. Judging by the twigs’ age, the knife is about 14,550 years old.

Scientist also examined a mastodon tusk with deep scratches, probably man-made, which was found at the same site in 1993, contributing to a new theory that could potentially rewrite the history of the first humans in North America.

The sinkhole is the earliest documented site containing clear signs of human presence in the southeastern United States, the researchers claim. Their findings, published in the Science Advanced journal on Friday, are said to provide “far better” evidence than previous studies from the site.

Most experts are still hesitant to accept the new conclusions, however

“The evidence from the Page-Ladson site is a major leap forward in shaping a new view of the peopling of the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age,” Waters said.

“In the archeological community, there’s still a terrific amount of resistance to the idea that people were here before Clovis,” he added, referring to the “Clovis people” – skilled hunters known for their weapons who are considered to be the ancestors of most of the oldest indigenous cultures of the Americas.

The sinkhole in the Aucilla river was searched by archaeologists several times in the 80s and 90s, but has been “politely ignored” ever since.

http://www.rt.com/usa/343063-florida-archaeology-sinkhole-research/