Rome's urban history inferred from Pb-contaminated waters trapped in its ancient harbor basins (original) (raw)
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A lead isotope perspective on urban development in ancient Naples
The influence of a sophisticated water distribution system on urban development in Roman times is tested against the impact of Vesuvius volcanic activity, in particular the great eruption of AD 79, on all of the ancient cities of the Bay of Naples (Neapolis). Written accounts on urbanization outside of Rome are scarce and the archaeological record sketchy, especially during the tumultuous fifth and sixth centuries AD when Neapolis became the dominant city in the region. Here we show that isotopic ratios of lead measured on a well-dated sedimentary sequence from Neapolis’ harbor covering the first six centuries CE have recorded how the AD 79 eruption was followed by a complete overhaul of Neapolis’ water supply network. The Pb isotopic signatures of the sediments further reveal that the previously steady growth of Neapolis’ water distribution system ceased during the collapse of the fifth century AD, although vital repairs to this critical infrastructure were still carried out in the aftermath of invasions and volcanic eruptions.
A Roman provincial city and its contamination legacy from artisanal and daily-life activities
PLoS ONE, 16(6): e0251923, 2021
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.
Lead pollution in the ancient harbours of Marseilles
… géographique des pays …, 2005
Two sediment profiles in the ancient harbour of Marseilles were investigated for their Pb concentration and isotopic composition. Sediments dated from the Roman Period show a large increase of Pb concentration and a shift in the Pb isotope ratio. This is an evidence of a Pb pollution in the harbour by the surrounding metallurgical activities. The origin of the Pb used at this time determined by the Pb isotopic composition is probably a mixture of French and Spanish Pb.
From the 1st century AD and for the duration of the Roman Empire, the Portus complex was the main harbor of Rome. Its location on the Tiber delta next to the Tyrrhenian Sea produced rapid environmental changes that, together with historical vicissitudes, largely determined the fate of the harbor. We have assembled data on the mineralogy, sedimentology, geochemistry, and ostracod populations of a sediment core drilled in the access channel of the hexagonal basin of Trajan, with the expectation that such a combined data set will shed new light on how the connections of the inland Trajan basin with the Tiber river, the earlier Claudius harbor on the nearby shoreline, and the sea evolved through the centuries. The data define four distinct periods which geochemistry characterizes by different conditions of salinity and oxygenation. These in turn can be related to historical periods and events by means of 14C data. The early Imperial Period was dominated by input of well-oxygenated freshwater from the Tiber. During the Late Empire, harbor water became relatively more influenced by seawater and increasingly oxygen deficient, which attests to a decommissioning of the Canale Trasverso connecting the harbor to the Tiber. The strong anthropogenic signal, which is visible very clearly in geochemical parameters, attests to the human occupation of the harbor area up to the Early Middle Ages, when human activity was brought to an abrupt end. The simultaneous use in this study of multiple complementary tracers has allowed for the sedimentary sources of the different classes of particles in the harbor basin to be identified and assigned to either the freshwater supply from the Canale Trasverso or the seawater of the Claudius harbor.
Demise of a harbor: a geochemical chronicle from Ephesus
At the end of the first century BC, Ephesus became the Roman capital of Asia Minor and the most important commercial, religious, and cultural center of the region. In order to evaluate the status of anthropogenic fluxes in the port of Ephesus, a 12 m long sediment core drilled in the Roman basin was investigated to shed light on the paleo-environmental evolution of the harbor using grain size distribution analysis, 14C ages, major and trace element geochemistry, and Pb isotope compositions. With the help of complementary sedimentological data and Principal Component Analysis, five distinct units were identified which, together, reflect the different stages of water history in the harbor. Among the major disruptive events affecting the port were earthquakes and military events, both of which were particularly effective at destroying the water distribution system. Seasonal floods of the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes) were the major source of the silt that progressively infilled the harbor. Silting inwas further enhanced by the westward migration of the river mouth. A single major disruptive event located at 550 cm core depth and heralding the development of anoxia in the harbor marks the end of the dynamic regime that otherwise controlled the harbor water throughout the RomanEmpire period. This remarkable event maycorrespond to amajor disruption of the aqueduct system or to a brutal avulsion of the Cayster River bed. It clearly represents amajor disturbance in the history of life at Ephesus. It is poorly dated, but probably occurred during the reign of Augustus or shortly after. Lead isotope and trace metal evidence suggest that in the four bottom units pollutionwas subdued with respect to other Pb metal inputs, presumably those from aqueducts and natural karstic springs. Near the top of the core, which coincides with harbor abandonment and the more recent period, anthropogenic Pb contamination is clearly visible in both Pb abundances and isotopic compositions.