Spår av romarna på Grönland

[Anganatyr]

I senaste numret av tidsskriften Illustrerad vetenskap står följande notis på sidan 73:

Visste du att borrkärnor av is från Grönland visar att atmosfären för 2 000 år sedan var förorenad med koppar, troligen beroende på romarnas militär- och myntindustri.

[Piankhy]

Det verkar som att man på Illustrerad Vetenskap gillar gamla nyheter. Här är ett citat från en artikel i Science från 1994.

Analysis of the Greenland ice core covering the period from 3000 to 500 years ago-the Greek, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance times-shows that lead is present at concentrations four times as great as natural values from about 2500 to 1700 years ago (500 B.C. to 300 A.D.). These results show that Greek and Roman lead and silver mining and smelting activities polluted the middle troposphere of the Northern Hemisphere on a hemispheric scale two millennia ago, long before the Industrial Revolution. Cumulative lead fallout to the Greenland Ice Sheet during these eight centuries was as high as 15 percent of that caused by the massive use of lead alkyl additives in gasoline since the 1930s. Pronounced lead pollution is also observed during Medieval and Renaissance times.

Greenland ice evidence of hemispheric lead pollution two millennia ago by greek and roman civilizations.


Här är en artikel från 1996 (också från Science) om kopparföroreningar.

Determination of copper concentrations in Greenland ice dated from seven millennia ago to the present showed values exceeding natural levels, beginning about 2500 years ago. This early large-scale pollution of the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere is attributed to emissions from the crude, highly polluting smelting technologies used for copper production during Roman and medieval times, especially in Europe and China. This study opens the way to a quantitative assessment of the history of early metal production, which was instrumental in the development of human cultures during ancient eras.

History of Ancient Copper Smelting Pollution During Roman and Medieval Times Recorded in Greenland Ice

Sedan får man ju förtydliga att föroreningar från romarnas verksamhet har flugit omkring i luften och sedermera fallit ned på Grönland. Romarna var alltså inte där själva

[Anganatyr]

Sedan får man ju förtydliga att föroreningar från romarnas verksamhet har flugit omkring i luften och sedermera fallit ned på Grönland. Romarna var alltså inte där själva

Det tror jag nog de allra flesta förstår utan förtydligande.

[Adils]

Det kanske var aliens.....?

[Anganatyr]

Eller spår från tomtens julklappstillverkning.

[Boreas]

Eller nordbornas brons och glastillverkning:

Evidence of Viking/Norse metalworking in Arctic Canada

A small stone container found by archaeologists a half-century ago has now been recognized as further evidence of Norse presence in Arctic Canada during the centuries around 1000 A.D.

Researchers reporting in the journal Geoarchaeology discovered that the interior of the container, which was found at an archaeological site on southern Baffin Island, contains fragments of bronze as well as small spherules of glass that form when rock is heated to high temperatures.

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2014/12/evidence-vikingnorse-metalworking-arctic-canada/105989

Evidence of Early Metalworking in Arctic Canada

This paper examines new evidence related to an early (pre-Columbian) European presence in Arctic Canada.

Artifacts from archaeological sites that had been assumed to relate to pre-Inuit indigenous occupations of the region in the centuries around A.D. 1000 have recently been recognized as having been manufactured using European technologies.

We report here on the SEM-EDS analysis of a small stone vessel recovered from a site on Baffin Island. The interior of the vessel contains abundant traces of copper–tin alloy (bronze) as well as glass spherules similar to those associated with high-temperature processes.

These results indicate that it had been used as a crucible. This artifact may represent the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in the New World north of Mesoamerica.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gea.21497/full