PUNIC WHO ? Mapping Ancient Africa.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ERATOSTHENES

circa 220 BCE

'This is a facsimile of the world map he produced based on his calculations [the original is lost]. The map shows the routes of exploration by Nearchus [to] the mouth of the Indus River (375 BC, after the expedition to India by Alexander the Great), and Pytheas (300 BC) to Britannia. Place names include Hellas (Greece), Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), Mare Caspium (Caspian Sea), Gades (Cadiz), Columnae Herculis (Gibraltar), Taprobane (Sri Lanka), Iberes (Iberian Peninsular), Ierne (Ireland), and Brettania (Britain), the rivers Ister (Danube), Oxus (Amu Darya), Ganges, and Nilus (Nile), and mountain systems. The map shows his birthplace in Libya (Cyrene), the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Syene (Aswan), where Eratosthenes made his calculations of the earth's circumference, and the latitudes and longitudes of several locations based on his measurements in stadia.'

(<etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/10408/10489/10489.htm> Reconstruction of Eratosthenes' map of the oikoumene [inhabited world]. From EH Bunbury, 1883, A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and Romans from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman Empire, London, p. 667)

'THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS Written 440 BCE Translated George Rawlinson 

4.42 "For my part I am astonished that men should ever have divided Libya, Asia, and Europe as they have, for they are exceedingly unequal. Europe extends the entire length of the other two, and for breadth will not even (as I think) bear to be compared to them. As for Libya (Africa), we know it to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia..."

4.44 "Of the greater part of Asia Darius was the discoverer. Wishing to know where the Indus ... emptied itself into the sea, he sent a number of men to sail down the river ... Thus all Asia, except for the eastern portion, has been found to be similarly circumstanced with Libya."

4.45 " ... As for Europe, no one can say whether it is surrounded by the sea or not, neither is it known whence the name of Europe was derived, nor who gave it name ..."

(<classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html>)

'Greek authors learnt a lot about these continents from foreign exploration. The first great adventure was the work of Necho II (r. 610-595 BCE) who established that Africa was surrounded by sea by sending Phoenician sailors to circumnavigate the continent from the Red Sea to the Pillars of Hercules ... Herodotus credits the Carthaginians with providing information about maritime trade on the Atlantic coast of Africa, and it must have been Egyptian merchants who told him about a trans-Saharan trade route leading west from Egyptian Thebes.'

(Josephine Quinn, 2024, How the World made the West, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, pp. 209-10)

'THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS ... 

4:42-3

"As for Libya [i.e. Africa] ... This discovery was made by Neco the Egyptian king, who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf [i.e. Red Sea], sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules [i.e. Gibraltar Strait], and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraen Sea [i.e. Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the Horn of Africa ― in modern English, the Eritrean Sea], and so started into the southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home. On their return they declared ― I for my part do not believe them, but perhaps others may ― that in sailing around Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered.

Next to these Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, according to their own accounts, made the voyage ..."

The ancient historian Herodotus (c. 484 - c. 425 BCE) expressed doubt, not about the truth of the Phoenicians' circumnavigation of the continent, but that they had to go so far south ―beyond the equator or tropical zone that was thought to be impassable (certainly uninhabitable!) ―before turning north to come home again. The historian thought, like his contemporaries, that humans simply could not survive the extremes of climatic heat that would need to be passed through to enter the southern hemisphere, where the sun indeed would be on the voyagers' right.

Other historians of the Greco-Roman era have expressed scepticism about the Phoeno-Egyptian claims to have rounded the southern cape of Africa and returned through the Strait of Gibraltar. Strabo, Polybius, and Ptolemy have doubted the story in its entirety and Pliny reported that it was Hanno the Carthaginian, a western Phoenician, who had gone around the continent (presumable anti-clock-wise!).

I too, wonder how big a slice of Luck is required for this ancient crew to have survived the possibilities of ocean storms, rogue waves, dietary deficiencies, or contagious diseases acquired along the way. But , probably in appalling conditions and with depleted crew numbers, they may indeed have achieved what they set out to do .

BYBLOS SHIPS and TARSHISH SHIPS

Egypt had a millennium of experience using Phoenician ships from trading cities like Byblos (or Sidon or Tyre etc) to transport goods on the eastern Mediterranean seaboard, or down the Red Sea to the Land of Punt. The seaworthiness of  Lebanese (and Carthaginian) ships steadily improved, so that by the late seventh and early sixth centuries, their construction was even stronger. Marine archaeology suggests that by then they had become resilient ocean-going vessels. 

The real thing was tough enough to earn its ancient reputation for long distance travel ― with destinations as far apart as Ophir in the Indian Ocean and Tarshish in the Atlantic. Phoenician vessels were called 'Byblos ships' in ancient Egyptian temple inscriptions (ca. 1450 BCE and ca. 1350 BCE, as above) and 'ships of Tarshish' in the Hebrew Bible's Books of History (1 Kings and 1 Chronicles) and Prophets (Isaiah 23 and Ezekiell 27) covering the monarchic and two kingdom periods (ca. 1050 BCE, to  ca. 750 BCE). As their respective names imply, they were capable of traversing the Mediterranean from east to west.

Evidence of the Phoenician ships' ubiquity as vessels of trade carrying ceramics and metal has been provided by marine archaeology in recent times. Discoveries of shipwrecked cargoes, as well as some preserved parts of vessels, have been made at places as diverse as offshore Gaza (east), Malta (centre), and Spain (west), in recent decades.

These ships' assumed level of seaworthiness was put to the test by The Phoenician Ship Expedition, conducted in 2008-2010. The Phoenicia was built on Arwad Island off the coast of Syria by local shipwright Khalid Hammoud using traditional methods. "The hull was made sturdy by using tenons to join planks together and then drilling holes and hammering pegs through the joints (pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery), after which the ribs of the ship were fit in. Some elements, like the horse-headed prow, were included on the basis of ancient images." Philip Beale, lifelong sailor and leader of the team, and his crew of eight, then "sailed the Phoenicia more than twenty thousand miles around Africa, demonstrating the robust construction of Phoenician ships."

(Elizabeth Nott, 2014, 'New Perspectives on Phoenician Sailing', THE MET, <metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/assyria-to-iberia/blog/posts/phoeniciansailing>)

(Surrounding map of Phoenicia's 2008-2010 voyage around Africa, from top left in a clockwise direction: the replica vessel's fo'c'sle en-route; bronze kneeling statuette of Pharaoh Necho II; at anchor at Capetown, South Africa; sailing; cold and foggy approaching St Helena Island,South Atlantic; sailing at anchor; off the Rock of Gibraltar).

The PERIPLUS of HANNO  

Judging by the version of Eratosthenes' map that has been presented above, the map-maker did not really believe Herodotus' story about a successful voyage around the continent of 'Libya'. The only part of Africa that shows signs of careful cartography based on verifiable exploration is limited to the southern shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea, plus a short excursion south west past the Pillars of Hercules, and a slightly longer journey via the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa. The rest of the coastline may well have been 'guesstimated', a convenient connection of two known points by what is largely unknown.

Situated along the vague freehand line drawn to represent the southern limits of 'Libya', the settlement of Cerne (or Kerne) seems an extremely remote anomaly. That it is probably not, is indicated by its position on the map's north-south Meridian, directly below Hanno's home port of Carthage. This was a deliberate placement by Eratosthenes because it corresponds closely with  paragraph 8 of the Periplus of Hanno: 

     Taking interpreters from them ['a wandering people, the Lixitae' from 'the Lixus, a great river'], we sailed twelve days south along a desert, turning thence to the east one day's sail. There, within the recess of a bay we found a small island, having a circuit of fifteen stadia; which we settled, and called Kerne. From our journey we judged it to be situated opposite Carthage; for the voyage from Carthage to the Pillars [of Heracles] and thence to Kerne was the same.

If indeed Eratosthenes marked Cerne/Kerne on his original but missing map, then it appears he did not dismiss Hanno the Carthaginians' story (as he had the Necho II expedition). He believed enough of it to include the reference on his prized Rome and Carthage Meridian line. Hanno's attempts to measure the distance travelled by equating Carthage-to-Gibraltar and Gibraltar-to-Kerne makes no sense when we consider the relevant angles involved. However Eratosthenes seems to have been convinced. (Later historians like Strabo and Pliny considered the whole expedition to be incredible, but then, being Romans, and after two Punic wars, they would).

1. "To the Libyan regions of the earth beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which he dedicated also in the Temple of Kronos, declaring the following:

     It pleased the Carthaginians that Hanno should voyage outside the Pillars of Hercules, and found cities of the Libyphoenicians. And he set forth with sixty ships of fifty oars, and a multitude of men and women, to the number of thirty thousand, and with wheat and other provisions."

2. "After passing through the Pillars we went on and sailed for two day's journey beyond, where we found the first city, which we called Thymiaterion; it lay in the midst of a great plain."

Hanno's introduction to his account is characteristically bold, including details that seem plausible with what may be exaggerated or fantastic. There are problems with the rest of the text too, originally inscribed in Phoenician but preserved with unknown fidelity in a Greek translation sometime before the Romans razed Carthage in 146 BCE. 

"Some sources and, to a lesser degree, archaeological evidence substantiate early colonizing efforts by Carthaginians outside the pillars of Heracles, including a few toponyms mentioned in our text, or at least, similar toponyms" (Jonathon Burgess, 2022, 'The Periplus of Hanno: Dubious Historical Document, Fascinating Travel Text', DOI:10.2307/j.ctu29j3dpf.6). For example, one of the Greek philosophers repeated the existence of "fires at night outside the Pillars of Heracles ... as the Periplus of Hanno relates" (Ps. Aristotle. Mirab. Auscult. 37). But the large numbers of sixty 50-oar ships and 30,000 passengers are a warning sign to more cautious readers.

Similarly, there is "frequent mention of mountains" (paragraphs 7, 9, 12, 16), and "a recurring theme of volcanic phenomena"  13, 14, 15, 16, 17), which is "perhaps surprising for navigation along northwestern Africa". The attention given to dangerous animals (4, 7, 10), and that the "Natives become increasingly exotic" (6, 7, 11, 14, 18), suggest a tale of travel and wonder rather than a navigational log. Hanno's concluding lines are typical of his narrative. The story ends abruptly, avoiding the tedium of a return journey, and on a note of brutal high drama. 

16. "And we sailed along with all speed, being stricken by fear. After a journey of four days, we saw the land at night covered with flames. And in the midst there was one lofty fire, greater than the rest, which seemed to touch the stars. By day this was seen to be a very high mountain, called Chariot of the Gods [i.e. 'support of the gods' or 'pillar of heaven']."

17. "There, sailing along by the fiery torrents for three days, we came to a bay, called the Horn of the South."

18. "In the recess of this bay there was an island, like the former one, having a lake, in which there was another island, full of savage men. There were women too, in even greater number. They had hairy bodies, and the interpreters called them Gorillai. When we pursued them we were unable to take any of the men; for they all escaped, by climbing the steep places and defending themselves with stones; but we took three of the women, who bit and scratched their leaders, and would not follow us. So we killed them and flayed them, and brought their skins to Carthage. For we did not voyage further, provisions failing us."

The precise location of Chariot of the Gods and Horn of the South remains a mystery. Educated guesses have ranged from Morocco, through Gambia, Cameroon, and even Gabon in equatorial Africa. We are unlikely to ever know how far Hanno got down the littoral of 'Libya', or, as this modern map of West Africa shows, where those colonies of Carthaginians (Thymiaterion, Karikon Teichos, Gytta, Akra, Melitta, Rambys, and the 'famous' Kerne/Cerne) were planted. 

The presence of ancient gold mining regions inland (Sp. 'aurifera') provided a motive for the outfitting of a Punic fleet (Sp. 'fenecias') and commercial settlement (Sp.'colonias'). The general idea of such a project is therefore not improbable.  Phoenicians of the west were people who knew the value of metals and how to transport them over the sea. Trading along the Mediterranean, Carthaginians would also have known of gold making its way over the Saharan sands. The type of record that Hanno produced may have been intentionally unhelpful to potential 'copycats', wishing to keep details of any new maritime route to himself.