A search of the Ing. Giuseppe De Marco
The
archaeological mistake of
It is certain that the Ofanto river, to the times of
According to the opinion of almost all of the
studious, the famous battle of
This battle is still an call strong, a sole suggestion
for all, capable to awaken the curiosity of the people and it search for the
studious, above all of the historians, of the archaeologists, of the thousand
flaws art of experts, even of the political. The investment of interest has
been always considerable, in all of the times, from the most ancient to the
most recent, from those and among the foreigners, unanimously retained one of
the largest events of the story of the world. Neither first nor after, in fact,
it is been verified a like massacre (perhaps 70.000 persons) in an alone day
(or rather in little hours) in a pitched battle, remained mysterious and
charming for the place where it is been carried out and for the date. Is more
than comprehensible, therefore, that all what pertains the battle of Cannae you
awaken curiosity is among the skilled reader is among the man of the road. Part
of this glamour and of this you interest have to the fact that, although the
numerous historical depositions, responsibility has been ever full convinced of
the exact location of the place of the battle, now guide to east now to west of
the Ofanto river, to times more to north or more to south of its course, to
times absolutely elsewhere and distant. Canae a mysterious town has seemed,
wandering, unobtainable.
In the year 1938, the prof. Michele Gervasio, director
of the Museum of Bari, it discovers a "large cemetery" in the present
locality of Canne (on the Ofanto river). The localization of the
"place" of unwinding of the battle of Cannae has in tal manner an
unexpected turn, since the considerable discovery archeological can resolve the
problem of the "page of story disputed". Place, river and bank in
fact can be identified easily, in the crowds of the cemetery, to Canne (on the
Ofanto river). The Aerial General of Squad Domenico Ludovico, between technical
the its valuable works-thousand flaws writes "The Battle of Cannae"
(Bookstore “Orologio” - Rome); from 1954 becomes President of the "Comitato
Pro-Canne". Competing of matters thousand flaws, it can affirm that in tal
manner one is place you finish to the uncertainties "of the place"
that is Cannae, and "of the bank" that the right hand is of the
Ofanto river. All it seems become clear for the resolution of the problem that
from centuries it pesters and it divides a lot studious Italians and foreigners
that they are dedicated to the localization of the most famous battle of the
antiquity. It was the confirmation that all were waiting for, the
definitive test of the exact location of the place of the battle. The shapes
vaguely human of some coverings of graves were remembering the sarcophaguses
antropoidi you punic; the skeletons surrounded by some skulls was making one
think warriors punish that had been added the witness of the Roman soldiers, to trophy way; the thoughtful bodies in the graves they should be of the
Carthaginians, while the bone all around the graves they can be not that of the
Romans. The conclusions they were or they were seeming obvious: the graves of
Canne they were those of the battle. And the absolute certainty was of the
identification also of the place of the battle, the end of a nightmare. At least therefore it was believed.
The games seemed done, but
all did not think the issue by now sluice, or rather of there to some
year Eleonora Bracco, Director of the Archeological Museum of Matera, given
back known to have uncovered in a zone of Matera very like groups of graves to
those rinvenute to Canne, but of secure period medioevale. That made rise all a
series of questions and made to reopen the interest for the matter. The
“Sovrintendenza for the Antiquity for the Puglia”, from 1956, rifared an
immense country of excavations in the zone of Cannae and started to different
all solution the complex matter. The Surveyor Fernanda Tiné Bertocchi that
directed the intense activities with incomparable mastery, arrived at
definitive conclusions and surprising, in a certain sense, opposite to the
expectations of everything: the graves of Canne they is not of the period
Hannibal (216-206 BC), but of medieval period (theft century AC) All of the
site archaeological of Canne it was pertaining in big part this last period,
even if was leaning on a precedent and much ancient centre apulo, that was not
having given marks of life from the III sec. to. C. Between the skeletons found
there were also those of children, women and elderly, and that was throwing
more of a shadow of doubt on a battle that should be been cruel itself, but
fought between recruits, in full soldiers vitality physical, even if between
men of fifty years, not between old persons of
beyond sixty years. For the coverings "antropoidi", then,
it is they were common and enough spread in all of the medieval age, therefore
not typical neither exclusive of the punic civility. In order to not say that
in some graves they were finds to you Byzantine earrings
of shape, marks of cross (Christian) Greek and Latin, necklaces of the thent
century AC.
It was coming so all except for the documentation-deposition
and was collapsing all the imaginative hypothesis of Canne. The searches
successive have transformed the tests in continuous and hard denied of this
incredible archeological mistake. In fact not convinced and not pleased with
this resulted furono sent in England some bone found in the graves of Canne for
a their exact one datazione. The Bulletin of the "National Phisical
Laboratory Radiocarbon Measurements" V 117 (of 1968) denies and without
appeal the belonging of those bone (those found and sent to the analysis) to
the period of the battle of Cannae and places them instead in 985 AC.
Not any comment is able however to be worth more of
the text:
original text:
National Phisical Laboratory Radiocarbon Measurements V 117
D. Italy
NPL-89. Canne S.M.I 965±95 A.D. 985
Human bones from skeleton in grave (41° 17' 40" N Lat, 16° 08'
38" E Long) about 1 m. deep covered by light stratum of earth, found at
Canne (Bari), Italy. Coll. 1964 by Gen. D. Ludovico and Dr., A. Martini, State
Archaecologist Dept. of Taranto, and subm. by Gen. Ludovido. It was hoped that
distinction could be drawn between skeletons from battle of Canne (216 B.C.)
and those of Middle Ages also found in same locality. Comment (Gen. D.L.):
sample must be from one of Middle Age skeletons known to exist in locality,
fewer than those of battle of Canne.
The age: A. D. 985 (985 AC). It there is not doubtful!
But ove were rising, in the same page of the Bulletin are restored, first of
Canne, other three datings, the first one from Hill
Fare, Kircandineshire (Scotland) risalente to 3130 BC; the second one from
Coygan Camp, Carmarthenshire of 3050 BC; the third one from Clarach Beach,
Cardiganshire (still in the Wales like the precedent) going
back to
4020 BC. Fourth and last, but, of 985 AC, that of Canne. If we hold account of
the other one given 965 + or -95, one arrives with 965 + 95 = 1060 AC, and is
obvious the comparison with the years 1018 AC (victory of the Byzantine) and
1083 AC (victory of Roberto the Guiscardo). In reality, it is returned to the
point of departure, with some difficult problem in more to resolve for the
previous recognition already confer to “Canne della Battaglia” and the creation
of a monument, of a railroad station, ecc., as well as of the celebrations that
annually, 2 August, here remember the large battle.
Where is the historical “truth”?