Herodotus' gold-digging ants in India

[George Thompson]

Hello Paul,

There was some discussion of Herodotus's gold-digging ants on the 
Indology list in November 1996, largely in response to Peissel.  If you 
search the list archives for peissel or gold eating ants or herodotus 
you will be able to find it.  Perhaps it will be of use.

Best wishes,

George Thompson

Paul Kiparsky wrote:

> According to Australian geoscientist Anna Petts, "local villagers in  
> Africa are known to pan soil from termite mounds to recover gold  
> nuggets up to 1 centimetre in size" (http://www.abc.net.au/science/ 
> articles/2009/05/08/2562546.htm, see also http://www.afrol.com/ 
> articles/10447).
>
> When I read this it occurred to me that Herodotus' famous story about  
> giant ants in India that bring up gold when digging their mounds and  
> tunnels might really refer to termites.  I realize that Michel  
> Peissel's suggestion that Herodotus' ants are marmots is widely  
> accepted, and it is supported by reports that the Minaro on the Indo- 
> Pak border used to sift sand from marmot mounds to get gold.   
> However, termites seem a better fit in other respects.  Their mounds  
> are bigger, and certain termite species burrow as much as 30 meters  
> into the ground to excavate building material. Herodotus says  
> explicitly that these creatures "look like our ants".  He says they  
> are much bigger than ants though, and indeed, some termite species  
> can reportedly be up to 20 cm long.  (True, he compares them in size  
> to a fox, which would fit the marmot better, but perhaps he is  
> exaggerating).  Also, Callimachus fr. 202 adds the information that  
> the ants are winged, which is true of termites during the swarming  
> season (June to August in Pakistan)
>
> Do you know of any references to termite mounds or anthills in  
> Sanskrit literature that might shed light on this question?  If there  
> are modern survivals of this technique, they would most likely be  
> found in remote parts of Pakistan.
>
> Paul
>