Every time you think about everything the Romans managed to do, remember that they did it intoxicated with lead
Who will not like the Roman Empire? A little over a year ago, thousands of women from all over Spain asked their boyfriends, friends or husbands to How much they thought of the Roman Empire. And, at least according to the meme, the answer was: a lot. What we just discovered hidden in Arctic ice is that, in short, we think too little: the Roman Empire He raised one of the civilizational works more impressive in the history of humanity and did it with absolutely demential atmospheric levels. Lead that they themselves had launched to the atmosphere. Lead, lead everywhere. Examining lead in three Arctic Ice Cores 2,000 years ago, a team of deserting institute researchers They have been able to calculate The level of environmental pollution in Europe between 500 before Christ and 600 after Christ. The data is, to put it in a gentle and restrained way, terrifying. As They publish in Proceedings of the National Academy of ScienceAfter examining the lead isotopes stored on that ice, researchers could create a map of pollution by this metal throughout Europe. Not only that: they estimated their magnitude, the blood lead levels of the inhabitants and even discovered what had caused that enormous pollution. A guilty with name and surname. According to data, silver is at the origin of this problem. Or, rather, the Mining of La Plata. In general and for centuries, the miners melled tons of galena To extract silver. It is estimated that by each ounce of useful silver thousands of ounces of lead to the environment were released. To put it in numbers: “During the 200 years of apogee of the Roman Empire, more than 500 kilotons of lead to the atmosphere were released.” This, always according to the records of the ice centers, is 40 times greater than during the large environmental lead peak of the 70s (after which we began to withdraw it from gasoline, paintings and the rest of the products). And that, of course, there were consequences. We already know that lead is bad for health. Very bad. And not only because of infertility, illness or violence problems: I talk about neurological problems that translate into a considerable decrease in cognitive abilities and concentration. In practical terms, According to DRI researcherslead levels in Roman times had to decrease between 2 and 3 points of intellectual coefficient in the general population. “It does not seem much, but when it applies to practically the entire European population, it is a big problem,” Nathan Chellman explainedCo -author of the study. A problem that, seen in perspective, only increases the myth of the Roman Empire. Image | Joseph McConnell | Ilona Frey In Xataka | The Google Maps of the Roman Empire: the map that allows you to plan a route at that time
