The Earliest Hints of Lead Pollution Dates 5,200 Years Back, Ancient Agrarian Sediment Core Reveal Traces

Lead poisoning has been a pressing concern in the current society where people are already dealing with air and water pollution. Lead exposure causes approximately 1.5 million deaths annually, primarily from cardiovascular disease, and causes irreversible neurological and behavioral damage, particularly in children, per the reports of the World Health Organization. However the cases of lead pollution date back to ancient Greek society. In a new study published in Nature, sediment cores from and around the Aegean Sea proved the earliest known evidence of lead contamination caused by humans. ㅤ ㅤ

The study identified a hike in the case of lead contamination from 2,150 years ago. Back then, there was a serious socioeconomic shift in the ancient Greek society as they came under the rule of Romans and started producing more silver. "Because lead was released during the production of silver proof of increasing lead concentrations in the environment is an important indicator of socioeconomic change," said Andreas Koutsodendris, the lead study author and a researcher at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University, according to a press release. Along with the Greeks, there were other Aegean civilizations such as the Minoans and the Myceneans.ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

A team of experts working with Koutsodendris sampled a series of sediments brought up from the Aegean Sea's floor and coasts. 14 separate sediment cores were tested after they were extracted by the METEOR and AEGAEO research vessels. The study results revealed that humans have caused lead contamination way before what was previously thought. People in ancient times also caused certain concentrations of lead. "The changes coincide with the conquest of Hellenistic Greece by the Romans, who subsequently claimed for themselves the region’s wealth of resources," Joseph Maran, the study co-author and an archaeologist at Heidelberg University, in the press release. ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

The Greeks indeed increased their silver production during the Roman rule and their environment was gradually getting contaminated around 146 B.C.E. The research team traced some of the lead contamination from a peat bog. This discovery helped the experts to deduce how Aegean people managed their lands, cut down forests, and cleaned agricultural fields after the Roman conquests, to fuel the production of silver. As a result, the Aegean lands transformed socially, economically, and environmentally. ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ 

"The combined data on lead contamination and vegetation development show when the transition from agricultural to monetary societies took place and how that impacted the environment," Jörg Pross, another study co-author and a professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University, in the press release. "The incorporation of Greek regions into the Roman political sphere provided the new rulers with the opportunity to benefit from the natural resources of the recently acquired provinces, which led to an unprecedented increase in the exploitation of Greek mining districts to extract gold, silver, and other metal resources," the study revealed. ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ