Who isn’t going to like the Roman Empire? A little over a year ago, thousands of women from all over Spain asked their boyfriends, friends or husbands what how much they thought about the Roman Empire. And, at least according to the meme, the answer was: a lot.
Poisoned. We discovered it hidden in the Arctic ice because, in short, we thought too little: the Roman Empire built one of the civilizational works most impressive in the history of humanity and it did so with absolutely insane levels of atmospheric lead. Lead that they themselves had thrown into the atmosphere.
Lead, lead everywhere. Examining lead in three 2,000-year-old Arctic ice cores, a team of researchers from the Desert Research Institute have been able to calculate the level of environmental pollution in Europe between 500 BC and 600 AD. The data is, to put it mildly and measuredly, terrifying.
As published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienceafter examining the isotopes of lead stored in that ice, researchers were able to create a map of contamination by this metal throughout Europe. Not only that: they estimated its magnitude, the levels of lead in the blood of the inhabitants, and even discovered what had caused this enormous contamination.
A culprit with a name and surname. According to the data, silver is at the origin of all this problem. Or, rather, silver mining. In general and for centuries, miners smelted tons of galena to extract the silver. It is estimated that for every ounce of usable silver, thousands of ounces of lead were released into the environment.
Figures. To put it into numbers: “During the 200-year heyday of the Roman Empire, more than 500 kilotons of lead were released into the atmosphere.” This, according to ice core records, is 40 times greater than during the great environmental lead peak of the 1970s (after which we began to remove it from gasoline, paints and other products).
And that, of course, had consequences. We already know that lead is bad for our health. Very bad. And not only because of problems of infertility, illness or violence: I am talking about neurological problems that translate into a considerable decrease in cognitive abilities and concentration.
Although not all experts agreeIn practical terms, according to DRI researcherslead levels in Roman times had to decrease between 2 and 3 IQ points in the general population. “It doesn’t sound like much, but when applied to practically the entire European population, it is a big problem,” explained Nathan Chellmanco-author of the study.
A problem that, seen in perspective, only increases the myth of the Roman Empire.
Image | Joseph McConnell | Ilona Frey
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