The Secret History of the Carthaginian War Elephant, Trab Pavillion, Jaou Tunis, 2018
The fictional autobiography of Hannibal Barca, written by Anelise Chen:
Discovery of the Elephant Cache at La Zaouia de Sidi Boukhrissane
In late 2010, a group of youths seeking refuge during the Jasmine Revolution demonstrations scaled a wall and found themselves here at the Zaouia of Sidi Boukhrissane. Little did they know, they had stumbled upon an archaeological discovery that would soon rewrite history. Underneath this floor was a collapsed chamber filled with broken ceramic pottery and mysterious, unexplained artifacts: poppy-shaped vessels, a prosthetic metal tusk, prototypes for elephant temples, and a magnificent, armored howdah. What were these objects, and who left them here?
Through the Roman histories of Herodotus and Livy, we know that Hannibal Barca once led a campaign of elephants across the Alps to attack Rome, but only now can we begin to comprehend the full symbolic apparatus of the Carthaginian war elephant.
The cache revealed artifacts that had been literally cut away from history. For instance, many artifacts from Byrsa Hill and the Tophet of Salammbo had a corresponding piece that once included an elephant. The famous sacrifice stele of a priest carrying an infant with one hand up in reverence to Baal Hammon—which European historians have long assumed to be evidence of infant sacrifice—is actually one of a pair. In the full set, the priest appears to be introducing the infant to an adolescent elephant, perhaps a companion animal. In the proper context, it is clear the priest’s hand is held up in a posture of greeting or unthreatening approach.
The Elephant Manuscript
Perhaps the most important discovery in the cache was a surprisingly well-preserved manuscript of fragments relating to the war elephant. When Rome burned Carthage to the ground in 146 BC, all the written texts of Carthage, too, evaporated in smoke. The Romans only kept one document, Mago’s comprehensive agricultural treatise, which Rome undoubtedly preserved for its usefulness. Tragically, all other histories of Carthage were disappeared—until now.
The Elephant Manuscript seems to be many things: index, dictionary, filing system, in which all mentions of the elephant are collected in one place. The original sources from which the fragments are culled are not cited; however, it appears that some fragments derive from the autobiography of Hannibal himself. Other fragments derive from training manuals written by mahouts; testimonies from soldiers; diaries of livery boys and international elephant traders; even female court poets, who wrote lush odes about the virility of the war elephant.
“Elephant Pills”
The round objects in this exhibit are in a class of unidentified objects informally referred to as “The Elephant Pills.” These sphero-conical objects, made of local clay and glazed with a distinctive black-hued glaze, range in size and shape. Many of these vessels resemble the poppy plant, long cultivated in Carthage for medicinal purposes. The drug was associated with the cult of Ceres, a palliative given to the goddess to dull the pain of losing her daughter to the underworld. Other vessels look like spinning tops (perhaps toys?), or segments of machinery, or water containers, or acorns, or incense holders, or grenades, or ornamental weights, or book ends.Scholars and historians suggest that perhaps these vessels contained opium which were administered to elephants in Elephant Heaven, an artificial paradise-on-earth that all war elephants enjoyed before going off to battle. Elephants in captivity often develop substance abuse problems, such as circus elephants who become alcoholics after trainers give it to them as reward, so perhaps these opium pills were also rewarded to war elephants. But if these vessels were indeed “pills” given to the elephants, how did these ceramic objects pass through the elephant’s stool? The mystery remains unsolved, but with further research, an answer may soon come to light.
