Archaeology:
Ancient Greek and Roman cultures caused lead pollution in Aegean Sea region
Lead pollution in the Aegean Sea region may have begun around 5,200 years ago, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings suggest that lead pollution due to human activities began approximately 1,200 years earlier than previously thought, and that the expansion of the Roman Empire across the Aegean region led to a significant increase in lead pollution in the region around 2,150 years ago.
Andreas Koutsodendris and colleagues analysed the lead content of marine sediment cores taken from across the Aegean Sea and a sediment core taken from the Tenaghi Philippon peatland, located in northeastern Greece. They then analysed the pollen and spore content of several of the cores, combining this with similar existing data for the region and the lead content data, to investigate how the region’s ecosystems were affected by the social and cultural changes at the time.
The findings include the earliest recorded signal of probable human-caused lead pollution, occurring around 5,200 years ago in the Tenaghi Philippon core. This is approximately 1,200 years earlier than the previous earliest suspected lead pollution, recorded in cores from peatlands in the Balkan Peninsula. The authors also suggest that a change in the vegetation record and an increase in the lead pollution signal around 2,150 years ago are likely linked to the expansion of the Roman Empire into Ancient Greece at that time. This period was marked by a significant increase in the mining of gold, silver, and other metals for use in currency and other items. The increase in the lead pollution signal includes the first presence of lead in marine sediment cores, which the authors suggest is the earliest recorded probable lead pollution in a marine environment.
Lead pollution in the Aegean Sea region may have begun around 5,200 years ago, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings suggest that lead pollution due to human activities began approximately 1,200 years earlier than previously thought, and that the expansion of the Roman Empire across the Aegean region led to a significant increase in lead pollution in the region around 2,150 years ago.
Andreas Koutsodendris and colleagues analysed the lead content of marine sediment cores taken from across the Aegean Sea and a sediment core taken from the Tenaghi Philippon peatland, located in northeastern Greece. They then analysed the pollen and spore content of several of the cores, combining this with similar existing data for the region and the lead content data, to investigate how the region’s ecosystems were affected by the social and cultural changes at the time.
The findings include the earliest recorded signal of probable human-caused lead pollution, occurring around 5,200 years ago in the Tenaghi Philippon core. This is approximately 1,200 years earlier than the previous earliest suspected lead pollution, recorded in cores from peatlands in the Balkan Peninsula. The authors also suggest that a change in the vegetation record and an increase in the lead pollution signal around 2,150 years ago are likely linked to the expansion of the Roman Empire into Ancient Greece at that time. This period was marked by a significant increase in the mining of gold, silver, and other metals for use in currency and other items. The increase in the lead pollution signal includes the first presence of lead in marine sediment cores, which the authors suggest is the earliest recorded probable lead pollution in a marine environment.
Journal
Communications Earth & Environment
Communications Earth & Environment
DOI
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Not applicable
Article Title
Societal changes in Ancient Greece impacted terrestrial and marine environments
Societal changes in Ancient Greece impacted terrestrial and marine environments
Article Publication Date
30-Jan-2025
30-Jan-2025
Lead contamination in ancient Greece points to societal change
Heidelberg geoscientists find the oldest evidence of human-caused contamination with the heavy metal lead in the Aegean region
Heidelberg University
image:
Collected during expeditions with the research vessel METEOR: sediment cores from the Aegean Sea, which as natural environmental archives provide insights into the effects of early human activity on ecosystems.
view moreCredit: Andreas Koutsodendris
Studies of sediment cores from the sea floor and the coastal regions surrounding the Aegean Sea show that humans contaminated the environment with lead early on in antiquity. A research team led by geoscientists from Heidelberg University conducted the analyses, which revealed that human activity in the region resulted in lead contamination of the environment approximately 5,200 years ago – much earlier than previously known. Combined with the results of pollen analyses from the sediment cores, this contamination also offers insights into socioeconomic change in the Aegean, even reflecting historical events such as the conquest of Greece by the Romans.
The Aegean region gave rise to some of the earliest cultures of ancient Europe. The research team investigated when and to what extent early human activities in the region affected ecosystems both on land and in the marine environment. To this end, the team analyzed 14 sediment cores from the floor of the Aegean Sea and the surrounding coastline. One core from a peat bog offered up the earliest known evidence of environmental contamination with lead. The researchers dated this lead signal to approximately 5,200 years ago, about 1,200 years before the previously earliest known evidence of environmental contamination with the heavy metal that is traceable to human activity.
“Because lead was released during the production of silver, among other things, proof of increasing lead concentrations in the environment is, at the same time, an important indicator of socioeconomic change,” states Dr Andreas Koutsodendris, a member of the Palynology & Paleoenvironmental Dynamics research group of Prof. Dr Jörg Pross at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Earth Sciences. The sediment cores the Heidelberg scientists analyzed contained lead as well as pollen, which allowed them to reconstruct vegetation development in the Aegean region. The pollen content pointed to how the land was used. “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,” stresses Jörg Pross.
Lead concentration rose significantly about 2,150 years ago, accompanied by intense deforestation and increasing agricultural use, as indicated by the composition of the pollen spectra. Starting then, lead contamination is also evident in sediment from the floor of the Aegean Sea – the earliest record worldwide of human-caused lead pollution in the ocean, emphasizes Andreas Koutsodendris. “The changes coincide with the conquest of Hellenistic Greece by the Romans, who subsequently claimed for themselves the region’s wealth of resources,” adds Heidelberg archeologist Prof. Dr Joseph Maran. The Roman conquerors thus pushed the mining of gold, silver, and other metals, with ore extraction and smelting also requiring wood.
The sediment cores from the Aegean Sea were collected during expeditions of the METEOR and AEGAEO research vessels between 2001 and 2021. The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the European Union financed the research expeditions, with the DFG also funding the most recent research work. Along with researchers from Heidelberg University, scientists from Berlin, Frankfurt (Main), Hamburg, Hohenheim, Tübingen and Greece also participated in the studies. The results were published in the journal “Communications Earth & Environment”.
Journal
Communications Earth & Environment
Article Title
Societal changes in Ancient Greece impacted terrestrial and marine environments
Article Publication Date
30-Jan-2025
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