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Lead from Roman mines pollutes ancient Alpine ice

A Mont Blanc glacier core also contains antimony from smelting carried out two millennia ago.
Lead toys from a Roman tomb

The Romans shaped lead into a host of items, including these toys from the tomb of a second-century ad Roman girl. Smelting of the metal left its mark on Alpine ice. Credit: De Agostini/Getty

Lead from the Roman era pollutes ice buried deep in an Alpine glacier, providing some of the oldest evidence that mining and smelting during the period spread environmental contaminants across Europe.

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Nature 569, 458 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01514-x

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