Controversy over the alpine route that Hannibal of Carthage followed fro
m the Rhône Basin into Italia has raged a
mongst classicists and ancient historians for over two
millennia. The
motivation for identifying the route taken by the Punic Ar
my through the Alps lies in its potential for identifying sites of historical archaeological significance and for the resolution of one of history
's
most enduring quandaries. Here, we present stratigraphic, geoche
mical and
microbiological evidence recovered fro
m an alluvial floodplain
mire located below the Col de la Traversette (~3000
m asl&
mdash;above sea level) on the French/Italian border that potentially identifies the invasion route as the one originally proposed by Sir Gavin de Beer (de Beer
m12231-bib-0010" rel="references:#arcm12231-bib-0010" class="link__reference js-link__reference" title="Link to bibliographic citation">1974). The dated layer is ter
med the MAD bed (
mass ani
mal deposition) based on disrupted bedding, greatly increased organic carbon and key/specialized biological co
mponents/co
mpounds, the latter reported in Part II of this paper. We propose that the highly abnor
mal churned up (bioturbated) bed was conta
minated by the passage of Hannibal
's ani
mals, possibly thousands, feeding and watering at the site, during the early stage of Hannibal
's invasion of Italia (218
mallCaps">bc).