Thursday, April 26, 2007

From Richard Reynolds



This coin is from ancient Numidia which was located in present day Algeria - -plainly a man riding an African elephant.
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Posted by Buckles at 4/26/2007 05:46:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also it looks like he is using the dreaded ankus.

Toby Styles

26 April, 2007 07:45
Anonymous said...

Mr. Styles, Today's "Horse Whisperers" call 12 foot of rope, plated onto a 4 foot fiberglass rod, a "carrot stick" and sell them for 125.00, while the rest use a lunge "whip." There in lies the catch. Bull hook offends, but they have no idea what an ankus is. Pretty ridiculous. Is it a "crush" or "squeeze" chute. In America, we give our performing felines a "fast" day. In England, they give their's a "starve" day.
I hope you are doing well. My best wishes, Wade Burck

26 April, 2007 14:10
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds adds - -

The ancients of Mediterranean
Africa domesticated the AFrican elephant as shown on this coin from Numidia (Algeria).

As far back as 275 BC the Ptolemys of Alexandria, Egypt had elephants from Africa, some used in warfare. So did the Carthaginians [Carthage was located in present Tunisia.] The Ptolemaic animals were from northern Sudan or Ethiopia before elephants were exterminated there.

The Carthaginians likely used the now extinct Atlas elephants (a race thought to have been more closely related to the forest elephants of the Congo basin) - - -though there is some suggestion that Asian elephants were also employed.

The Atlas elephants were found in the Mountains of that name in what are now Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The coin likely shows one of the Atlas elephants being ridden by the Numidian. Note that he did not straddle the neck but sat sideways.

The Romans took 100 of these African elephants to Italy after conquering the Carthaginians in Sicily in 251 BC., during the first Punic War.

However, the most famous of the Carthaginian elephant exploits were those later led by Hannibal in 218 BC during the second Punic War vs. the Romans. He marched 37 of them all the way from present Spain, through southern France, and then over the Alps to Italy to do battle. That is a well known story.

At the time of Jesus Christ, during the reign of Caesar Augustus in the early years of the new epoch (AD), the Romans even had an African elephant breeding farm southwest of Rome. All of this and much more is laid out by George Jennison in his wonderful 1937 book, "Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome."

Sadly the art of domesticating the African elephant died with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and lay dormant for some 14 centuries until the Belgians revived it in the Congo, begining in 1899.

26 April, 2007 15:15
Anonymous said...

This political correctness is really getting out of hand. We are not supposed to call them hooks or ankuses but "Guides". Any day I expect someone to come out with a line of "Nerf Hooks". The ankus is one of the oldest metal tools known to man and has been used in Asia for thousands of years.
On another note most readers of the blog know Wade as one of the preement wild animal trainers. But he also is really good with pigs. Yes pigs, with Michale Hackenberger he broke a tremedous pig act for us at the Toronto Zoo and also trained the presenters.
Toby

26 April, 2007 17:39

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