New research from Northumbria University has revealed that metal-related pollution began in the Balkans more than 500 years before it appeared in western Europe, and persisted throughout the Dark Ages and Medieval Period, meaning the region played a far bigger role in mineral exploitation than previously believed.
New research from Northumbria University has revealed that metal-related pollution began in the Balkans more than 500 years before it appeared in western Europe, and persisted throughout the Dark Ages and Medieval Period, meaning the region played a far bigger role in mineral exploitation than previously believed.
The study provides a new perspective on both the timing and extent of metallurgy – the technique of extracting metal from ores prior to heating or working with metals to give them a desired shape – in the Balkans, and the associated economic change this brought to the region, such as the inception of the Metal Ages.
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) today (Tuesday 29 May 2018).
The exploitation of mineral resources has a broad range of environmental impacts, including metal-contaminated wastewater and the release of microscopic chemical particles into the atmosphere from mining and smelting. As these particles settle on to the surface of a peat bog, an environment in which the sediment develops year on year, a clear history of the bog’s development may be established.
Read more at Northumbria University
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