Sunday, May 3, 2020

Pollution Levels in Medieval England

Interesting. From Ancient Origins:
Professor Christopher Loveluck and colleagues from Nottingham University published their full findings in the journal Antiquity. This presented their analysis of the ice core sample from Colle Gnifetti showing a drop and then spike in lead smelting from AD 1169–1170, following the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury in his cathedral in AD 1170. The be-header, King Henry II , was excommunicated by the pope and therefore, he commissioned the construction of several new monasteries attempting to appease the Church, projects requiring huge amounts of lead piping, roofing and for stained glass windows.
All smelted in Britain, traces of the lead pollution from this process floated across Europe and settled in an 800-year-old section of ice, which the researchers bored out of the Colle Gnifetti glacier in 2013. Dr. Loveluck wrote that in the mid-late 12th century lead pollution was at similar levels as it was in the mid 17th century and in 1890, so our notions of atmospheric pollution starting in the Industrial Revolution “are wrong.” (Read more.)
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