New Study Demonstrates Increased Lead Pollution in the Roman Empire

By Owain Williams

The human impact upon the natural world is increasingly apparent. It rare that a day goes by and I do not see news about human-induced climate change or its effects on the world we live in, whether wildfires, extreme storms, or flooding. Now, a study recently published in Nature has demonstrated how humanity’s penchant for environmental pollution is not a modern phenomenon.

By analyzing sedimentary archives from the Aegean, the authors of this study have noted several increases, plateaus, and decreases in the level of lead in the environment throughout antiquity. The increase of lead in the atmosphere is almost certainly the result of mining activity. Consequently, these changes in the amounts of lead in the samples can be linked to economic activity.

The study noted a decrease in environmental lead levels ca. 3100–2800 years ago, which roughly corresponds to the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Although the evidence for demography in this period is limited, it is believed there was a general population decline in Greece, as the Mycenaean palatial system seems to have collapsed. There was a subsequent spike in mining-derived lead levels around 2600 years ago, which roughly corresponds to the introduction of coinage to the ancient Greek economy – lead is a common by-product of silver mining. The biggest spike in mining-derived lead pollution, however, happened 2150 years ago. The authors of this study connect this spike to the Romans’ conquest of Greece in 146 BC, which saw the Roman Empire gain control of significant additional resources to be exploited. Aside two dramatic but short-lived declines in lead pollution corresponding to the Antonine and Justinianic plague, lead pollution in the Aegean remained high from ca. 146 BC to AD 800.

The study, “Societal changes in Ancient Greece impacted terrestrial and marine environments,” is available in Open Access in Nature.