National Lecturer for the Archeological Institute of America’s Stanford Society
Hannibal’s Secret Weapon
Patrick N. Hunt has been teaching at Stanford University since 1993 and directed the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project between 1994-2012, which received sponsorship from the National Geographic Society in 2007-2008 and has been featured at National Geographic Learning events through 2017 as well as written up in National Geographic. Under National Geographic auspices Hunt conducted research in Spain and Carthage (Tunisia) as well in the Pyrenees, continuing in France, Italy and also Turkey where Hannibal lived his last years. The research project has independently continued since 2013 as the Hannibal Expedition, annually conducting research between Italy and France.
In 1996 Hunt found the 9,000 ft. high quarry for the Temple of Jupiter in the Fenetre de Ferret pass adjacent to the Great St. Bernard Pass between Italy and Switzerland and directed a team that discovered and excavated a Roman silver coin hoard in the Swiss Alps in 2003.
Germane to this new biography of Hannibal, one of Hunt’s primary research interests has been to track Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps in 218 BCE and examine major Hannibal battlefields from 218-202 BCE. Annually between 1996 and 2016, Patrick led Stanford teams across Spain, France and Italy including over at least 30 Alpine passes in search of topographic clues matching the texts of Polybius and Livy who wrote about Hannibal nearly two millennia ago.
Patrick has been an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1989 and has been a National Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America since 2009. He has served as President of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Stanford Society since 1995. Hunt is also an Expedition Expert for National Geographic Expeditions 2016-2017 in montane European regions and he is often featured in National Geographic documentaries.