Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Erechtheion temple, as at the background is seen smoke from a fire , during a hot, windy day at Acropolis hill, in Athens, Tuesday, July 16, Researchers studying sediment cores recovered from mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea have found the oldest known evidence of lead pollution in the environment dating to around 5, years ago.
That's 1, years older than the previous earliest recorded lead pollution, which was found in a peatbog in Serbia. In antiquity, lead was released into the atmosphere as a byproduct of smelting ore for copper and silver.
The toxic metal later condensed as dust and settled onto the soil. The site with the earliest signs of lead contamination is located in northeastern Greece, near the island of Thasos. The researchers found that levels of lead contamination remained fairly low and localized in ancient Greece, considered the cradle of European civilization, throughout the Bronze Age, the Classical period and the Hellenistic period.
The Classical period is famous for Athenian democracy, Socrates and Plato, and the Hellenistic period saw Greek cultural influence peak across the Mediterranean region. Around that time, in B. As Roman trade, colonies and shipping expanded across the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea, demand for silver coins grew rapidly, requiring smelting that released lead, said Koutsodendris.
Later the Roman Empire used lead for tableware and for construction, including pipes. Previous research — including an analysis of ice cores from Greenland — had detected high levels of lead across much of the Northern Hemisphere during Roman times. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
