Comments on: Lead and the Roman water system

By: Maggy

Maggy — Wed, 21 May 2014 07:27:02 +0000

You’re probably right Hazel, but lead was used in many more applications – even wine storage jars as it made the wine taste sweeter! Sounds like elevated lead content could come from more places than just water supply aqueducts. This is why we need more research!

By: Hazel Dunphy

Hazel Dunphy — Tue, 20 May 2014 23:24:32 +0000

Is not water in and around Rome hard which would reduce the lead content in piped water?

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 19 May 2014 08:19:22 +0000

Given that lead accumulates in the body ( particularly bones and teeth) and has been implicated in child IQ impairment I would be interested in any cross correlation with lead analysis in skeletons through time in Portus-has such work been done?

By: Maggy

Maggy — Tue, 13 May 2014 07:26:29 +0000

Following on from Per’s point, agreed that modern evidence doesn’t support the idea that lead pipes brought down the Roman Empire, but the recent research allows us to test the hypothesis that urban people at the time had greatly elevated levels of lead in their systems. I have seen for example the remains of huge lead containers (Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, not on display); lead pipes and taps led into houses in places that have survived to a large extent, like Pompeii and Herculaneum. Per is correct that the supply of water into urban centres was continual, flowing by gravity along aqueducts and then into collection/distribution points, and even down to the level of individual neighbourhoods water flowed continually into supply troughs from which ‘the unconnected’ gathered their water. But wealthier people definitely enjoyed indoor plumbing largely based on lead. I suspect that in provinces like Britain, the value of lead piping led later non-urban generations to strip them out and re-use them so they don’t survive for excavation.
Per, there’s a great book by Peter Connolly called The Ancient City that has excellent reconstructions of Roman plumbing based on real examples from Italy – I recommend it and believe you will enjoy it.

By: Per Baadnes

Per Baadnes — Mon, 12 May 2014 20:33:53 +0000

I have always thought that water was supplied continuously to Roman cities, continuously as in running all time. I do not know if they had a tap to turn on and off. By this I mean, the accumulation of lead ions would be less than in the analyses sediment. One of the effects of lead poisoning is sterility, another is reduced strength in the muscles in the hands, not likely to bring the Roman empire down. To me it seems quite far fetched to accuse the water, more likely are the length of the border, the organization of the attacker, the weakened military and the like.

By: Maggy

Maggy — Mon, 12 May 2014 07:40:41 +0000

It would be great to think these methods could also be applied closer to home. In the NW of England there are Roman sites such as Chester and Maryport which have avoided post-18th century large scale industrial development and so might be able to yield similar sediments for isotopic analysis.
I’d love to learn more about the lab processes involved in gathering and analysing samples, and hope this will be at least signposted in the course.