When You Think About All the Great Things the Romans Did, Remember That They Got Them Done Even Though They Had Lead Poisoning

Who wouldn’t be fascinated by the Roman Empire? A little over a year ago, thousands of women asked their boyfriends, friends, and husbands how much they thought about the Roman Empire. According to the viral social media trend, the answer was quite a bit.

Poisoned. A recent discovery in the Arctic ice reveals that experts may have underestimated the Empire’s achievements. The Romans constructed one of the most impressive civilizational feats in history while being exposed to alarming levels of atmospheric lead pollution. Naturally, they themselves had released that atmospheric lead into the environment.

Lead, lead everywhere. A team of researchers from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) recently analyzed the lead in three 2,000-year-old Arctic ice cores and calculated the level of environmental pollution in Europe from 500 BC to 600 AD. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are shocking, to put it mildly.

Researchers examined isotopes of lead found in ice samples. This analysis allowed them to create a map showing lead contamination across Europe. Additionally, they estimated the magnitude of the pollution, assessed the blood lead levels of the residents, and identified the sources of the contamination.

A culprit with a name. According to the data, silver mining is at the heart of this issue. For centuries, miners smelted tons of galena to extract silver. Researchers estimate that thousands of ounces of lead were released into the environment for every ounce of usable silver produced.

Quantifying the impact. During the 200-year heyday of the Roman Empire, more than 500 kilotons of lead were released into the atmosphere. Based on ice core records, this amount is 40 times greater than the peak of lead pollution observed in the 1970s, after which countries began eliminating lead from gasoline, paints, and other products.

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Serious consequences. Scientists have widely warned that lead is harmful to health, particularly due to its links to issues such as infertility, disease, and violence. However, one of the most concerning effects of lead exposure is on neurological health, leading to a significant decline in cognitive abilities and concentration.

DRI researchers indicate that lead levels during Roman times may have resulted in an average decrease of 2 to 3 IQ points across the general population. “An IQ reduction of 2 to 3 points doesn’t sound like much, but when you apply that to essentially the entire European population, it’s kind of a big deal,” author Nathan Chellman explained.

This issue just adds another layer to the greatness of the Roman Empire.

Image | Ilona Frey

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