Route of Hanno the Navigator

Hanno the Navigator was a Carthaginian explorer who flourished c. Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers 450 BC. Events By place Greece Athenian General Cimon sails to Cyprus with two hundred Triremes of the He was most well known for his naval exploration of the African coast. The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean.

Etymology

This Hanno is called the Navigator to distinguish him from a number of other Carthaginians with this name, including the perhaps more prominent, though later, Hanno the Great. Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers There were three leaders of ancient Carthage who were known as Hanno the Great, according to two historians See Hanno for others of this name. The name Hanno (Annôn) means "merciful" or "mild" in Punic - similar to the arabic name "Hanan" (حنان) with the same meaning, the Hebrew name "Hanan" (חנן), still used in present-day Israel, and to the Lebanese Hanna, ("حنا") still used in Lebanon today. The Punic language is an extinct Semitic language formerly spoken in the Mediterranean region of North Africa and several Mediterranean islands, by people of For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Lebanon (ˈlɛbənɒn Arabic: ar لبنان Lubnān) officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic (ar الجمهورية اللبنانية

Expedition

As Warmington states ^[1] Carthage dispatched Hanno at the head of a fleet of sixty ships to explore and colonize the west coast of Africa. This article is about a type of political territory For other uses see Colony (disambiguation. He sailed through the straits of Gibraltar, founded or repopulated seven colonies along the African coast of Morocco, and explored significantly further along the Atlantic coast of the continent. The Strait of Gibraltar ( Arabic: مضيق جبل طارق Spanish: Estrecho de Gibraltar) is the Strait that connects the Atlantic The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean. A continent is one of several large Landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by Convention rather than any strict criteria with seven regions Hogan cites the visit of Hanno to Mogador, where the Phoenicians established an important dye manufacturing plant using a marine gastropod found in the local Atlantic Ocean waters. Essaouira (الصويرة eṣ-ṣauīrah formerly known as Mogador, its older name is a City / Wilaya and tourist resort in the western Moroccan A dye can generally be described as a Colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied The class Gastropoda or the gastropods, also previously known as gasteropods, or univalves, and more commonly known as Snails ^[2] Hanno encountered various indigenous peoples on his journey and met with a variety of welcomes. The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical

On the island which formed the terminus of his voyage the explorer found it heavily populated with what were described as hirsute and savage people. An island (ˈaɪlənd or isle (/ˈaɪl/ is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water in two dimensions above high tide and isolated from other significant Attempts to capture the males failed, but three of the females were taken. These were so vicious they were killed, and their skins preserved for transport home to Carthage. The interpreters called them gorillas, which has provided the etymology for the species name. Gorillas, the largest of the living Primates are ground-dwelling Herbivores that inhabit the Forests of Africa. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank.

Periplus account

The primary source for the account of Hanno's expedition is a Greek translation, titled Periplus, of a tablet Hanno is reported to have hung up on his return to Carthage in the temple of Ba'al Hammon whom Greek writers identified with Chronus (also known as Chronos). Periplus is the Latinization of an Ancient Greek word περίπλους ( periplous, contracted from periploos) literally "a sailing-around Ba'al (pronounced; Hebrew בעל (ordinarily spelled Baal in English is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" In Greek mythology, Chronos ( Ancient Greek:) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of Time. The full title translated from Greek is The Voyage of Hanno, commander of the Carthaginians, round the parts of Libya beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which he deposited in the Temple of Chronos. Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. This was known to Pliny the Elder and Arrian, who mentions it at the end of his Anabasis of Alexander VIII (Indica):

"Moreover, Hanno the Libyan started out from Carthage and passed the Pillars of Heracles and sailed into the outer Ocean, with Libya on his port side, and he sailed on towards the east, five-and-thirty days all told. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author For others with this name see Arrianus (disambiguation. Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon' (ca Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. But when at last he turned southward, he fell in with every sort of difficulty, want of water, blazing heat, and fiery streams running into the sea. "

This account's factual dependability has been both questioned and defended (see link). Both Harden ^[3] and Warmington ^[4] quote this account in English translation. Warminton ^[5] suggests that difficulties in reconciling the account's specific details with present geographical understanding are consistent with classical reports of Carthaginian determination to maintain sole control of trade into the Atlantic.

"This report was the object of criticism by some ancient writers, including the Pliny the Elder, and in modern times a whole literature of scholarship has grown up around it. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author The account is incoherent and at times certainly incorrect, and attempts to identify the various places mentioned on the basis of the sailing directions and distances almost all fail. Some scholars resort to textual emendations, justified in some cases; but it is probable that what we have before us is a report deliberately edited so that the places could not be identified by the competitors of Carthage. Scholarly method &mdash or as it is more commonly called scholarship &mdash is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as From everything we know about Carthaginian practice, the resolute determination to keep all knowledge of and access to the western markets from the Greeks, it is incredible that they would have allowed the publication of an accurate description of the voyage for all to read. What we have is an official version of the real report made by Hanno which conceals or falsifies vital information while at the same time gratifying the pride of the Carthaginians in their achievements. The very purpose of the voyage, the consolidation of the route to the gold market, is not even mentioned. "

Modern analysis of Hanno's route

A number of modern scholars have commented upon Hanno's voyage. In many cases the analysis has been to refine information and interpretation of the original account. William Smith points out that the complement of personnel totalled 30,000, and that the core mission included the intent to found Carthaginian (or in the older parlance Libyophoenician) towns. ^[6]

Harden ^[7] states there is general consensus that the expedition reached at least as far as Senegal. Senegal (le Sénégal officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. There seems some agreement that he could have reached Gambia. However, Harden mentions lack of agreement as to precisely where to locate the furthest limit of Hanno's explorations: Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Gabon. Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. Gabon (gəˈbɒn or /gaˈbõ/ in French) is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Republic He notes the description of the Cameroon Mountain, a 13,370 foot volcano, more closely matches Hanno's description than Guinea's 2910 foot Mt. Mount Cameroon is an active Volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the Kakulima. Warmington ^[8] prefers Mount Kakulima, considering Mount Cameroon too distant. Mount Cameroon is an active Volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea.

The controversial amateur epigrapher Barry Fell claimed that Hanno had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and explored North America (see: Bourne Stone). Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved Barry Fell (born Howard Barraclough Fell on June 6 1917 in Lewes, Sussex, England; died on April 21 1994 of Heart failure in The Bourne Stone is an archaeological curiosity located in the town of Bourne, Massachusetts.

Earlier Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa

Herodotus recorded a circumnavigation of "Libya", by an expedition of Phoenicians sent out by "the Egyptian king" Necho II (606-593 BC), one of two seventh-century kings of the 26th Saite Dynasty

"with orders to sail west about and return to Egypt and the Mediterranean by way of the Straits of Gibraltar. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now Necho II (sometimes Nekau) was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (610 BC - 595 BC and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal The Saite or Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest (although others followed and had its capital at The Phoenicians sailed from the Arabian gulf (Red Sea) into the southern ocean, and every autumn put in at some convenient spot on the Libyan coast, sowed a patch of ground, and waited for next year's harvest. The Red Sea is a Salt water Inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface . . " ^[9]

Herodotus himself discounted this story on account of the assertion that the Phoenicians had the sun to the north of them as they passed along the southern part of the continent. As Harden ^[10] comments, this very claim has most modern scholars accepting that Phoenicians did circumnavigate Africa. In modern times a Phoenician sailing vessel was found in the area of the "Cape Flats" found off the South African city of Capetown.

In fiction

The Science Fiction book The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson depicts the wide-ranging adventures of several secret immortals (i. Poul William Anderson ( November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author who wrote during a Golden Immortality (or eternal life) is the concept of living in physical or spiritual form for an Infinite length of Time. e. they never grow old, though they could be killed). A central protagonist is a Phoenician/Carthaginian named Hanno.

In the book, this Hanno is never conclusively identified with the Hanno the Navigator in the Periplus. At some point Hanno refers to him as his "namesake", but in the context of the book, where the fictional Hanno is secretly immortal and where he is often deliberately ambiguous and evasive about his past, this is not conclusive to identify him as a different Hanno. The character does mention starting off in the earlier Phoenician expedition sent to circumnavigate Africa via Egypt as described by Herodotus, but leaving it soon after the expedition set off, never learning of its true fate. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash

References

Bibliography

• Donald Harden, The Phoenicians, (Penguin, Harmondsworth) 1971 (1962)
• Herodotus, transl. Aubrey de Selincourt, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1968 (1954)
• B. H. Warmington, Carthage, (Penguin, Harmondsworth) 1964 (1960)

See also

• Himilco the Navigator

External links

• "Hanno's Periplus on the Web:" a directory of further links.
• Livio Catullo Stecchini, "The voyage of Hanno" carefully analyzed by a classical scholar.
• Periplus in English.
• Hanno's Voyage from Canaanite.org
• Hanno, a Carthaginian navigator from Charles Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867)
• Annotated commentary on Hanno's Periplus by Jona Lendering.
• Scan of original Greek manuscript on "Hanno Carthagiensis"