Earliest Evidence of Lead Pollution Found From 5,200 Years Ago

Learn more about the earliest evidence of human-caused contamination from lead, found in the ancient Aegean.

By Sam Walters
Jan 30, 2025 10:45 PMJan 30, 2025 10:47 PM
The METEOR research ship sampled sediments from the Aegean Sea
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. (Credit: Andreas Koutsodendris)

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There’s a lot in our lives today that traces back to ancient Greece and the other cultures of the Aegean: our politics and philosophy, our art and architecture, and, apparently, our lead pollution. That’s according to a study of sediment cores from in and around the Aegean Sea, which found the earliest-known evidence of human-caused contamination from lead, and tied it to the area’s inhabitants around 5,200 years ago.

Published in Communications Earth & Environment, the study also identified an increase in lead contamination around 2,150 years ago. This coincided with a significant socioeconomic shift in the Aegean, as the ancient Greeks came under the control of the Romans and increased their output of silver as a result.

“Because lead was released during the production of silver, […] proof of increasing lead concentrations in the environment is […] an important indicator of socioeconomic change,” said Andreas Koutsodendris, a study author and a researcher at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University, according to a press release.


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