Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2601 Agriculture Drive, Madison, WI 53707-7996, USA.
Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2601 Agriculture Drive, Madison, WI 53707-7996, USA.
Environ Res. 2024 Dec 1;262(Pt 2):119941. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119941. Epub 2024 Sep 6.
Technological change has affected human health dating back to at least the Neolithic agricultural revolution. Growing evidence indicates widespread environmental pollution began with metallurgical practices and continues today. Environmental exposures to trace elements released from these practices have the potential to alter human body composition, such as bone mineral chemistry, especially for elements that are not homeostatically regulated. These signals can be used for inferences about human health, particularly when metallotoxins are detected in abundance. Therefore, trace element geochemistry of archaeological bone may provide a means to evaluate human health through time. However, diagenetic factors can hinder attempts to extract this information. Thus, we employed advanced analytical and interpretive methods to carefully distinct groups of European burials over about 1000 years to address questions of potentially toxic trace element exposures. Here, to address our hypothesis that Roman urbanization created one of the earliest urban toxic environment caused by multiple exposures, we present a comprehensive suite of bone trace element compositions of femora from burials spanning three distinct archaeological time periods (Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman period). All bone specimens were obtained from the anterior-mid shaft of carefully selected femora and processed using the same analytical techniques designed to mitigate soil contamination. Our data indicate that widespread environmental pollution accelerated in Londinium during the Roman Empire period, leading to conditions where population health would be vulnerable to environmental changes. Specifically, bone lead, silver, vanadium, arsenic, and cadmium concentrations were typically elevated and would likely be associated with multiple toxicities. In addition, bone iron levels were extremely high in some Londinium burials. Our interpretation is that the Romans inhabiting Londinium were not just poisoned by lead exposure as several previous studies show but by several metallotoxins.
技术变革至少自新石器时代农业革命以来一直影响着人类健康。越来越多的证据表明，广泛的环境污染始于冶金实践，并一直持续到今天。这些实践中释放的痕量元素的环境暴露有可能改变人体成分，如骨骼矿物质化学，特别是对于那些不受内稳态调节的元素。这些信号可用于推断人类健康，特别是当大量检测到金属毒素时。因此，考古骨骼的痕量元素地球化学可能提供一种通过时间评估人类健康的方法。然而，成岩作用因素可能会阻碍提取这些信息的尝试。因此，我们采用了先进的分析和解释方法，仔细区分了约 1000 年来的欧洲墓葬群体，以解决潜在有毒痕量元素暴露的问题。在这里，为了验证我们的假设，即罗马城市化造成了最早的由多种暴露引起的城市有毒环境之一，我们提出了一系列广泛的股骨痕量元素组成，这些股骨来自跨越三个不同考古时期（青铜时代、铁器时代和罗马时期）的墓葬。所有的骨骼标本都是从精心挑选的股骨前中轴获得的，并使用相同的分析技术进行处理，旨在减轻土壤污染。我们的数据表明，在罗马帝国时期，伦敦的环境污染迅速加剧，导致人口健康容易受到环境变化的影响。具体而言，骨骼中的铅、银、钒、砷和镉浓度通常升高，可能与多种毒性有关。此外，伦敦一些墓葬中的骨骼铁含量极高。我们的解释是，居住在伦敦的罗马人不仅像以前的几项研究表明的那样受到铅暴露的毒害，还受到多种金属毒素的毒害。
