54(C-1-3) The search of lead pollution in the years of the Romans by the analysis of lead concentrations in human and animal bones in Cazzanello, Italy

It has been revealed that people in the Roman Empire suffered from much more serious lead poisoning than that of today by analysis of lead in excavated human bones. Previous studies have speculated lead added to wine as a sweetener, water pipes and dishes made of lead as main pollutants in the years of the Romans. If it is a case, such pollutants should have resulted in lead pollution limited in urban areas. However a wider-ranging environmental pollution of lead such as the distribution by air-borne lead particles has not been estimated. In order to estimate the influence of environmental pollution of lead, we compared the concentration of lead in domesticated animal bones with that in wild animals excavated from a Roman site, Cazzanello in Tarquinia, Lazio, Republic of Italy. As a result, not only domesticated animals but also wild animals including rabbit. shearwater and fox showed higher lead values than modern animals unexpectedly. It suggests that the wider-ranging lead pollution influenced also remote area in the years of the Romans.