In Ancient Rome, lead caused deficits in the IQ of Romans. Nowadays, the opposite is more common: the deficit in IQ is what usually causes “leads”.
Extensive silver mining in Ancient Rome may have exposed the Romans to high levels of silver. lead air pollutionwhich probably caused a general decrease in your IQ.
Analysis of the Arctic ice sheets, detailed in a study this Monday in PNAS, points to atmospheric lead concentrations at the height of the Roman Empire.
According to the study, lead concentrations in Ancient Rome were about three times higher than those today in the USA, for example.
The effect on the intelligence of ancient peoples across Europe – especially in the main coin-making regions of the Iberian Peninsula – would have been significant and could even have made them more susceptible to conflicts and pests.
On the one hand, Roman water pipes and ceramics exposed citizens to lead contamination, which is reflected in previous analyzes of the bones and teeth of urban Romans; on the other, the new study proposes that lead air pollution may have had a broader effect.
Although most of the lead hovered within the Roman Empire – and especially over metalworking areas – smaller amounts would have been found. spread across Europe and ended up in the glaciers of Greenland in a few days.
Every year, glacier ice tends to form easily distinguishable layers about 10 centimeters thick, so scientists can accurately date them and the chemicals they contain.
As detailed by , the research team revisited lead records archived in three ice cores from glaciers in Greenland and the Russian Arctic, representing the years 500 a.C. a 600 d.C.
The team found that in areas closest to smelting sites, lead concentrations likely exceeded 150 nanograms per cubic meter of air at the height of the Roman Empire, from 27 a.C. a 180 d.C.. This translates into more than 500,000 tons of lead released to the atmosphere during this period.
Based on epidemiological studies, former levels of lead air pollution would have caused a average of 2.5 to 3 points not QI throughout the Roman Empire – with much greater effects in the smelting zones.
In addition to the empire, all of Europe – and probably even North America – would have been affected, in some way, by Roman lead pollution, the leader of the research explained to New Scientist Joseph McConnellresearcher at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, USA.
