Abstract
Roman metal use and related extraction activities resulted in heavy metal pollution and contamination, in particular of Pb near ancient mines and harbors, as well as producing a global atmospheric impact. New evidence from ancient Gerasa (Jerash), Jordan, suggests that small-scale but intense Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad period urban, artisanal, and everyday site activities contributed to substantial heavy metal contamination of the city and its hinterland wadi, even though no metal mining took place and hardly any lead water pipes were used. Distribution of heavy metal contaminants, especially Pb, observed in the urban soils and sediments within this ancient city and its hinterland wadi resulted from aeolian, fluvial, cultural and post-depositional processes. These represent the contamination pathways of an ancient city-hinterland setting and reflect long-term anthropogenic legacies at local and regional scales beginning in the Roman period. Thus, urban use and re-use of heavy metal sources should be factored into understanding historical global-scale contaminant distributions.
Highlights
One of the markers of modern industrial and urban environmental impacts is heavy metal contamination in soils, sediments, air and water at local, regional and global scales [1]
Our aim is to define the contamination legacy of an ancient middle-sized city, Gerasa/Jerash in Jordan, one of the famous classical sites of antiquity, which flourished from the early Roman period until the middle of the 8th century CE, when it was hit by a devastating earthquake (Fig 1)
We identify the small-scale but common and intense Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad workshop activities in an urban quarter that may have contributed to heavy metal contamination of local soils and sediments and indicate the contamination pathways that existed both within an ancient city and between an ancient city and its hinterland involving air, water, soils and sediments
Summary
One of the markers of modern industrial and urban environmental impacts is heavy metal contamination in soils, sediments, air and water at local, regional and global scales [1]. Modern contamination is not the only source with a global traceable impact. Roman industrial mining and smelting activities resulted in a global atmospheric impact observed in European peat bogs and Arctic and Alpine ice cores [2, 3]. At local and regional levels, moderate to high levels of Cu and Pb heavy metals from Roman copper, lead and silver mining and smelting activities have resulted in detectable atmospheric contamination within peats and lakes in Europe [3, 4].
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