Archaeology
Romans were early pioneers of recycling
A study using gold impurities in silver coins and lead pollution in Greenland ice suggests that the Romans were early pioneers of recycling.
The process of extracting silver from ores and the refining at mints results in high volumes of lead pollution. During antiquity, this pollution entered the atmosphere, and drifed across the Atlantic leaving a “pollution fingerprint” in the Greenland ice.
The study, published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, highlights a significant reduction in lead pollution levels in the ice during the late Roman Republic, despite the continued production of coins.
The likely cause was a period of conflict during the first and second centuries BC, when Rome’s access to silver mines in Iberia and southern France was interrupted.
Deliberate debasement of the denarii (the predominant silver coin of the Romans) with copper is often considered to show interruptions in silver production. Yet, despite slight dips in the fineness of silver coins (especially around the times of the Social and Civil Wars in the first century BC), this does not provide enough of an explanation for the drops in lead pollution.
In elucidating this occurrence, Dr. Jonathan Wood and Dr. Matthew Ponting, researchers from the University of Liverpool, attribute it to the Romans’ practice of recycling silver, frequently acquired through post-conflict looting in Iberia and southern France for coin production.
According to the researchers: “At around 120 BC clusters of coins began appearing with very low levels of gold in them. The silver used for these coins also appears to have become part of the silver supply for coinage in the first half of the first century BC. Then, in 49 BC, a new infusion of silver with high levels of gold in it appears to enter circulation. Given that Julius Caesar returned to Rome from his battles with the Gauls in 49 BC, the researchers propose that this new silver in circulation was plundered by Caesar’s army.”
Dr Jonathan Wood said: “Debasing silver was one way to deal with fluctuations in the silver supply. Melting down existing silver, either yours or someone else’s, was another. For the Romans, recycling coins would have been considerably less expensive than extracting new silver – a benefit for their finances, as well as for the environment.”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01854-w
Header Image Credit : Alamy
Archaeologists from the University of Warwick are conducting an underwater study to document the submerged Mesolithic site of Bouldnor Cliff before it vanishes due to erosion.
Bouldnor Cliff is situated in the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the southern coast of England. The site was first discovered in 1999 when divers observed a lobster discarding worked flint tools from its burrow on the seabed.
At a time when Britain was cut off from mainland Europe by rising sea levels, the area of the Solent was a river valley inhabited by an advanced Mesolithic community who developed a boat building technology 2,000 years ahead of their time.
The study aims to find new data on the nature of the late Ice Age environment during the development of the Mesolithic era, and the extent of the interaction between the inhabitants of Bouldnor Cliff and Europe, including the exchange of materials.
Professor Robin Allaby, who is leading the expedition, said: “This is an incredible opportunity to understand the lost world in which the Mesolithic developed using the latest techniques before our chance is gone.”
The study will involve a comprehensive palaeoenvironmental analysis, in addition to state-of-the-art techniques such as optical simulated luminescence for constructing ecological profiles. Furthermore, archaeologists intend to recover archaeological artefacts and environmental markers to reconstruct the past environment.
Dr Kinnaird adds: “This is an exciting research project to showcase the new innovations in luminescence dating, which can tell when an object was last exposed to the Sun. The relevance of this technique in writing the narratives for 4000 years of history, at the time that the British coastline was rapidly changing, is huge!”
According to the researchers, these discoveries carry the potential to significantly transform our comprehension of the era when Britain emerged as an island.
Header Image Credit : University of Warwick
Sources : University of Warwick
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
A study of the “Excalibur” sword found in Valencia has been revealed to have Islamic origins sometime during the 10th century AD.
Valencia is one of the oldest cities in Spain, founded under the name of Valentia Edetanorum by the Romans in 138 BC.
The city was conquered by the Moors in the 8th century AD, and was destroyed by Abd al-Rahman I of the Umayyad dynasty. Under Caliphate rule, the wider city area became known as Madînat al-Turâb (meaning “city of earth” or “sand”).
The sword was discovered back in 1994 in a house on Valencia’s Historiador Chabàs Street, where it was found standing upright in a grave beneath an Islamic era house.
Dubbed “Excalibur” due to the circumstances of its discovery, the sword is made from iron and has a hilt decorated with bronze plates. In mythology, Excalibur was the legendary sword of King Arthur and appears in various medieval poems describing Arthur pulling the sword from a stone.
However, the “Excalibur” from Valencia was found in a sedimentary strata from the 10th century AD and was likely the weapon of a cavalryman from the Andalusian Caliphate Era.
According to the archaeologists, the sword measures 46 centimetres in length and has a slightly curved blade towards the tip. Swords from this period are rarely found well-preserved due to the levels of oxygen and water in the soil that causes oxidation of the iron.
“It is the first Islamic sword that appears in the city of Valencia, with only one similar example being found during the excavations of Medina Azahara, the caliphal city of Abd al-Rahman III, in Córdoba,” said the Valencia City Council.
Header Image Credit : The Archaeology Service (SIAM) of the Valencia City Council
Sources : Valencia City Council
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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