FEATURE

Feature
Debris flow burial of ancient wall William C.
Mahaney1, Pierre
system in the Upper Po River valley Tricart2, Rene
W. Barendregt3,
The regrouping area, where Hannibal is thought to have reformed his army
Christopher
after forging a path through a massive rockfall in the Cottian Alps, has been
reshaped by a blanket of sediment deposited from debris flows following
Carcaillet4, Davide
heavy rain in spring, 2008. Analysis of precipitation data for the period mid- Rabufetti5 & Volli
May to mid-June, 2008, shows that 722 mm of rain fell at 2150 m, falling Kalm6
1
Quaternary Surveys, 26
off to half that amount at 3325 m on the flanks of Mon Viso. Following
Thornhill Ave, Thornhill,
exhaustive analysis of environmental factors connected with the invasion Ontario, Canada, L4J
of Italy at the start of the Second Punic War (218 bc), identification of the 1J4 (arkose@rogers.
regrouping area for the Carthaginian Army centred on the presence of an com; b.kapran@hotmail.
com), 2Laboratoire
ancient stone wall system which possibly dates from Hannibalic times. Lichen
de Géodynamique
cover, lichen diameters, weathering characteristics, degree to which boulders
des Chaînes alpines,
had sunk into the resident soil, and presence of ancient hearths all combined University of Grenoble,
to make this area a choice locale for reconstructive geoarchaeology. Large Observatoire des Sciences
scale mass wasting off a prominent bedrock bar adjacent to the wall system de l’Univers, 38041
Grenoble, France; (Pierre.
in the Upper Po River Valley resulted in burial of most of the prominent wall
Tricart@ujf-grenoble.fr),
structures which will complicate any exploration geoarchaeology attempts in 3
Department of Geography,
future. University of Lethbridge,
Alberta, Canada, T1K
A nested series of rock wall systems on the floodplain on the lee side of the Alps; 5, presence of a two-tier 3M4; (Barendregt@uleth.
of the Upper Po River below the Col de la Traversette ‘landslide’ (rockfall) blocking the army on the lee side; ca), 4Centre de Bio-
in the Cottian Alps of Italy were buried by debris flows and 6, a regrouping area sufficient to provide forage Archéologie et d’Ecologie
emplaced during heavy spring runoff in 2008. Be- and water for the army. (UMR5059 CNRS/EPHE),
cause these interconnected wall systems are thought Many researchers have described various areas Institut de Botanique,
to date from Hannibal’s passage through the Alps, they consider suitable as the ‘regrouping or restaging Université Montpellier
and may contain artefacts important in elucidating area’, but with the exception of the Upper Po, all oth- 2, 163 Rue Broussonet,
the military culture of ancient Carthage, burial may er sites are below cols which lack: firnpack; sufficient 34090 Montpellier, France;
make it difficult to locate the sites for future geoar- view into Italy; and suitable blocking rockfall deposit. (Christopher.Carcaillet@
chaeological excavation. The purpose of this article Only the regrouping area we described in 1988, with univ-montp2.fr), 5ARPA
is to draw attention to the site, providing supporting its ancient sunken wall system, closely fits the de- Piemonte Area delle attività
geomorphological evidence as to its composition and scription provided by Polybius (III, 55) who followed regionali per la previsione e
age. the path of the Punic Army some seventy years later. il monitoraggio ambientale
The key environmental variables elucidated by Because analysis of the walls and adjacent hearth Via Pio VII, 9-10135
researchers (whose work is indicated in the ‘Sug- sites might yield artefact information, important in Torino, (d.rabufetti@arpa.
gestions for Further Reading’, below), to identify the elucidating information on the military culture of an- piemonte.it), 6Institute of
invasion route of the Punic Army, centre on: 1, pres- cient Carthage, it is important to document the effect Ecology and Earth Sciences,
ence of a major defile in which the Gauls attacked; 2, of their burial by debris flow activity that occurred Tartu University, Tartu,
presence of firnpack adjacent to the high col; 3, long in late spring 2008. Shallow excavation that might Estonia, 51014. (Volli.
view into Italy from the crest; 4, steep ledges and cliffs have been possible following a metal detector survey kalm@ut.ee)

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010 209
 FEATURE

Fig. 1. a. Regional geological map of the Upper Po Catchment and adjacent area. The anomalous weather
pattern documented from the Upper Po River Basin was felt across the entire Western Alps. Two areas
where sites are documented in the text are indicated with arrows (from Mahaney, 2010); b. Air imagery of
the Po River valley at the 2000 m contour. The arrow shows the location of the stone wall system.

will most likely now become more difficult to carry
out and may well require ground penetrating radar
(GPR) to accomplish any recovery of materials.
Regional setting
The area where Hannibal crossed the Alps into the
NW frontier of Italia is directly north of Mon Viso
(3843 m a.s.l.), the highest mountain in the Cottian
Alps. Mon Viso belongs to the internal zone of the
Western Alpine arc, which displays a thick pile of
metamorphic nappes derived from an earlier rifted
structure of Early to Middle Jurassic age, and from
its oceanic Late Jurassic to Cretaceous successor. The
nappes, with their recumbent folds and flat lying fo-
liations, suffered first, deep subduction in high pres-
sure-low temperature metamorphic conditions (eclog-
ite facies), before building an accretionary wedge in
less severe (blueschist facies) conditions. The latter
occurred while the ocean was closed and its west-
ern stretched margin shortened in Late Cretaceous
to Early Cenozoic times. During subsequent collision,
several shortening phases resulted in post-nappe folds
and thrusts, the latest directed toward the core of the
arc (the so-called backfolds and backthrusts), which
underline the curved geometry of the inner mountain
belt. From the Late Cenozoic onwards, this complex
polystage structure corresponds to the most thickened
part of the Alpine crust, which underwent gravita-
tional collapse. The collapse resulted in extensional
and transtensional faulting, parallel and transverse to
the mountain belt, i.e. roughly tangential and radial
to the arc. The late Alpine fault net, which remains
partly active today, is directly responsible for the loca-
tion of the main valleys such as the Upper Po River.
It explains why relief appears more confused in the
internal arc than in the external arc beyond and to
the west of the Durance River.
The lithologies present in the Upper Po Valley
range from metabasalt in the Col de la Traversette it-
self grading into calcareous mica schist (the ‘Schistes
lustrés’ and ‘calcescisti’ of French and Italian Alpine
geologists) in the upper valley. Contact with outcrops
of gabbro and basalt at the ~2000 m contour is ac-
companied by positive relief in the form of prominent
bedrock bars that resist weathering and glacigenic
Fig. 2. Foraging area in the
Upper Po area where Hannibal
may have regrouped after
forging a path through the
blocking rockfall (From Mahaney,
2010).

210 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010
 FEATURE

Sites prior to burial The area stretching from below the

albergo at 2020 m a.s.l. is a composite of gentle glacial
bedrock steps that extend down-valley to the alpine
road patrol gate at ~1900 m a.s.l., approximately
6 km from the town of Crisollo at 1700 m elevation.
The present timberline is located at 1800 m but
recent pollen investigations indicate the tree limit
may have reached to the elevation of the rockfall at
2600 m, the deposit that blocked Hannibal’s Army,
approximately 2200 yr bp.
The regrouping area is today a lush carpet of
grasses and sedges with sufficient water fed from
three main drainages to the south, west and north
and with many small rivulets (Fig. 2) active in the
autumn when Hannibal is reputed to have crossed
over into Italy. There are many large boulders in the
valley bottom that might have provided a break from
the wind and hollows where tents may have been
erected to shelter troops from the elements. If a forest
was present all the way to the rockfall as suggested
by pollen analysis there would have been a wood
supply for fires to maintain a level of warmth and for
cooking. With regard to the three-day stay by some
60 000 troops, horses, mules and elephants while
the path through the rockfall was being constructed
Fig. 3. Stonewall system below it is probable that many personal items might have
the debris flow. been discarded or lost and certainly stone walls may
either have existed prior to the Hannibalic incursion
processes better than the mica schist outcrops to the or constructed on the spot by soldiers as bivouacs to
west. To the east exposures of serpentinite (derived attend to the wounded or as cooking areas to feed
from mantle peridotites) provide rock which is more
prone to weathering and release, and includes the
areas of mass wasted debris discussed below.

Examining the site

Methods Shallow excavation of fluvisols that dominate
on the valley floor were carried out to determine
soil depth and common soil profile characteristics.
Shear strengths were determined with a common
SOILTEST penetrometer. Lithologies were determined
by field observation and comparison with the regional
geological map. No excavations were attempted as we
did not have a licensed archaeologist in the field team.
Attempts to observe charcoal flakes in the fluvisols
that might support Livy’s contention that the rockfall
mass was fired to break up or comminute boulders
were unsuccessful. No bogs are present from which
core material might be recovered. Radiocarbon dating
might be employed if suitable amounts of organic
material can be recovered from underneath the
boulder mass making up the wall system.
Meteorological data, provided by ARPA-Piemonte
in Italy, consist of daily precipitation and temperature
Fig. 4. Stonewall system
measurements from stations at 638 to 3325 m a.s.l.,
now covered with debris flow
the highest station on the flanks of Mt Viso in the
sediment.
Cottian Alps.

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010 211
 FEATURE

in places impossible to identify with certainty, but

the boulders are not positioned high enough and in
prominent places to favour bird fertilization known
to occur in the general area. Lichen longevity for this
middle latitude locality strongly affected by nearby
marine moisture sources in the Mediterranean and
Adriatic, is estimated at ~2000 years. This value is
partly arrived at by previously studied lichen growth
near Mt. Blanc.

Fig. 5 (left). a. Origin of debris

flow sediment in rockfall debris
50 m above the valley floor.
The soil (arrow) is a thin Entisol
with an A/C/Cu horizon similar
to mid-Neoglacial age soils
in rockfall higher in the valley
(Mahaney, 2009); b. View of
wider debris flow channel where
it debouches onto valley floor.
the troops.
The wall system (Figs 3, 4), first investigated in
2004, consists of boulders with a mean size of 0.5 m Fig. 6 (right). a. Transverse
built up in a network that may have been used to valley cross section of the debris
compartmentalize people or animals and with a sunk- flow cover sheet showing the
en base deep into the underlying soil. With a present south edge of the ancient stone
height above the land surface of 0.2 to 0.5 m it is pos- wall system almost completely
sible the walls were used primarily as a windbreak to enveloped in debris flow
maintain cooking fires with a canopy of canvas sup- sediment; b. Toe of the debris
ported by timber. Sunken areas in between the walls flow merging with the channel
suggest possible hearths but none were excavated for of the Upper Po River.
fear of disturbing what might be potentially impor- Sites following burial Excessive heavy rainfall during
tant geo-archaeological sites. Location of the highest the spring of 2008 led to slope failure on high ridges
density of sunken walls within 100 to 150 m of the to the north of the Upper Po Valley, resulting in
trail leading up the bedrock wall to the west may massive release of bedrock and left lateral moraine
well indicate that disabled or wounded soldiers were ridge deposits. Collection of surface runoff from the
tended to, at this higher end of the regrouping area. high bedrock slopes tended to follow small streams
Large boulders shown in Figs 3 and 4 carry at that undermined the road from Crisollo to the
least 50 per cent lichen cover and look at, or near, Albergo at 2020 m elevation. Fluidization of the
lichen growth longevity. Burial of these surfaces in
snow during the winter probably reduces lichen de-
struction by ice crystal blasting which would occur
on exposed surfaces. Strong advecting winds reach- Fig. 7. Relative ages of
ing above 50 m/s in winter probably restrict crus- protalus: Outer zone very
tose lichen growth on exposed outcrops limiting the discoloured with Fe-oxides;
middle zone partly weathered
use of lichen parameters as an age estimation index.
with oxides; and inner zone of
The location of the stone walls above the floodplain
fresh clasts. The outer zone is
of the Upper Po River does not favour irrigation, so
considered to be Late Glacial in
lichen growth is dependent strictly on the substrate
age; middle zone may belong to
mineralogy which is favourable for growth of most
an earlier stade of Neoglaciation;
species, including those in normal alpine climate and the inner zone is likely Little
and time. Fertilization by marmots is a possibility, Ice Age.

212 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010
 FEATURE

moraine sediment led to the production of a mass
of low viscosity debris flow material that blanketed
the valley floor (Fig. 5A, B) and covered much of the
stone wall network. Normally, debris flow deposits
have a somewhat greater ratio of clast to water, and
hence higher viscosity, giving rise to lower flow rates
and development of levees on either side of the flows.
The distal ends of these debris flow show sheetflow
characteristics with no evidence of levees, suggesting
that the flows became fluid as debris torrents
debouching onto the valley floor as sheetfloods/shallow
alluvial aprons. However, adjacent to the debris flow
activity, rockfall off the serpentinite outcrops can be
clearly demarcated from the older talus and protalus
deposits (Fig. 7) that, judging by their lichen cover,
have considerable antiquity, perhaps correlative with
the time of passage of the Punic Army.
Table 1. Daily rainfall (mm)
Station–Municipality 27–05 28–05 29–05 30–05 Total
Colle Barant–Bobbio Pellice 52.8 20.4 312.2 40.4 425.8
Pian Giasset–Crissolo 36.8 17.6 185.2 33.2 272.8
Crissolo–Crissolo 39.4 12.0 145.2 33.8 230.6
Paesana–Paesana 10.4 5.0 118.0 27.2 160.6
Table 2. Rainfall totals (mm) in the antecedent period in the Upper Po Basin culminating in the last week
of May.
Weeks (day–month)
———————————————————————————
31–3 7–4 14–4 21–4 28–4 5–5 12–5 19–5
6–4 13–4 20–4 27–4 4–5 11–5 18–5 25–5 Total
1.5 32.7 81.1 17.1 6.3 11.0 31.9 76.5 258.0

Meteorological considerations During the period of

Table 3. Maximum rainfall (mm) accumulated for different durations
27–31 May 2008, intense precipitation registered in
the western Alps, Piemonte Region of Italy (Table 1, Station–Municipality 1 h 3 h 6 h 12 h 24 h
Fig. 8), triggering a large number of shallow landslides
and debris flows on the mountain catchment, as well Colle Barant–Bobbio Pellice 36.8 75.4 127.6 222.8 325.0
as floods in the down-valley streams feeding the Po Pian Giasset–Crissolo 31.4 51.0 78.0 136.2 200.4
River catchment. This event came after two rainy Crissolo–Crissolo 20.8 40.8 53.8 94.4 159.0
months, culminating in April 2008, with rainfall Paesana–Paesana 28.4 41.0 68.0 88.2 127.4
amounting to 30 per cent above the mean value Paesana–Paesana 10.4 5.0 118.0 27.2 160.6
(period 1960–1990) on record; and after a week of
antecedent heavy rain (Table 2). This event produced
soil moisture saturation in a short time, enhancing Conclusions
runoff, slope failure and gully initiation from the The possible recovery of artefact evidence related to
storm. As shown above, unstable rockfall deposits the passage of the Punic Army awaits exploratory
with low vegetation cover were prime targets where geoarchaeology by qualified personnel with a license
debris flows were easily generated. to dig the site. The covering of mass wasted debris Fig. 8. Map showing rainfall
Finally, a statistical characterization of the storm reaching to 0.5–0.7 m depth will make recovery all distributions (isohyets) in the
is carried out on the base of the maximum cumula- the more difficult and require something more in- Upper Po River Basin, Italy.
tive rainfall over different durations. The values are
reported in Table 3. The comparison with the clima-
tological values expressed in terms of IDF (Intensity-
Duration-Curves) curves is shown in Fig. 10.
The comparison in Fig. 10 highlights the most
critical duration over 12 and 24 hours whose return
period is: greater than 50 years for Colle Barant and
Pian Giasset gauges; about 15 years for Crissolo and
about five years at Paesana. Furthermore the strong
orographic effect appears very clearly with a consid-
erable increase of precipitation linked to elevation.
Finally it is useful to take into account the snow level
to assess if the rainfall rate increase with elevation
is counter balanced by the presence of snow (wa-
ter equivalent). From Fig. 11, the assessment is that
above 3000 m a.s.l., the presence of snow accumula-
tion between 2150 and 3325 m may have played a
significant role in flooding at high elevations as the
ambient air temperature was between 0 and 5°C.

© Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010 213
 FEATURE

Fig. 9. Hourly hydrographs. The heaviest precipitation received at the

2000 m contour (Pian Giasset) and above on the slope of Mon Viso
where mass wasting was the most severe.

some valleys, to the north of the Po River, debris flows

surrounded and consumed farm buildings damming
up small streams in the process. Slope failure was
facilitated by low frequency of grasses and sedges,
water saturation of thin soils with pebbly loamy sand
and sandy loam textures, and soil parent materials
with low bulk densities ~1.5 g/ml. With low evapo-
transpiration at the surface and rapid saturation, por-
tions of slopes were rapidly fluidized, and entire chan-
nels were cut almost instantly, as saturated deposits
lost shear resistance.

Acknowledgements
Funding from Quaternary Surveys, Toronto, is grate-
fully acknowledged. Data are from the ARPA Pie-
monte meteorological database. We thank Barbara
Kapran for assistance in the field and the use of Figs
5, 6 and 7.

Suggestions for further reading

Allison, R.J. & Bristow, G.E. (1999). The effects of fire
volved than a metal detector survey. With the thick- on rock weathering: some further considerations
ness of overburden it will probably be necessary to of laboratory experimental simulation. Earth Sur-
use ground penetrating radar to image the subsurface face Processes and Landforms, v.24, pp.707–713.
Fig. 10. Maximum rainfall in
and determine preferred excavation localities. Cross Bagnall, N. (1999). The Punic Wars. Pimlico, London,
the event compared with the
correlation of data provided here with ancient texts 347pp.
IDF curves.
provided by Polybius and Livy suggest this is one of
the prime localities that offers promise to recover evi-
dence of occupation by either Hannibal or his brother
Hasdrubal, the latter perishing on the Metaurus River
after transiting the Alps with a relief army in 207.
The extreme mass wasting events that led to ex-
cessive debris flow activity in the period mid-May to
mid-June 2008 was initiated by anomalous precipita-
tion up to the ~2200 m a.s.l. Above the ~2100 m
contour precipitation dropped off to about half the
amount which fell below, suggesting the convective
system that produced the rainfall was depleted of
moisture as it approached the high slopes of Mon
Viso. The sediments affected by loading with exces-
sive moisture are lateral moraines and rockfall debris
that responded to moisture saturation with loss of
shear resistance in the clast supported matrix mate-
rial giving rise to rather low viscosity flows. In some
areas these low viscosity flows became supercharged
rivers, streams with considerable water volume and
lower bed load. Channels were cut on valley sides as
indicated by the imagery above, while near the valley
bottoms, water and sediments debouched onto the
valley floor creating an extensive alluvial surface. In

214 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists’ Association & The Geological Society of London, Geology Today, Vol. 26, No. 6, November–December 2010

Fig. 11. Air temperatures
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