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An Ice Core Reveals the Economic Health of the Roman Empire
- brlewis 8y agoWouldn't the lead levels also be affected by variations in each year's winds?
- acjohnson55 8y agoThis was a very timely article for me, as I just yesterday finished the epic and excellent History of Rome podcast (http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/ http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/). I found it extremely informative, and it really shed some light on the origins of many aspects of European history, that otherwise just seem peculiar.
- DanAndersen 8y agoI'll latch onto your post to also recommend the podcasts "The Fall of Rome" [0] and "Tides of History" [1], both by Patrick Wyman. He's a PhD who specialized in Late Antiquity, and often looks at Roman history/society from the lens of networks, trades, and the movement of people and goods over time. The one caveat I have is to bear with him in terms of the repetitive/boring ads he sticks into the middle of his episodes. I like to imagine his podcasts as an audio version of a History Channel show -- at least what the History Channel was supposed to be rather than what it's devolved into. [0] https://fallofromepodcast.wordpress.com/ https://fallofromepodcast.wordpress.com/ [1] https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wondery/tides-of-history https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wondery/tides-of-history
- acjohnson55 8y agoThanks for the recs, those look fantastic! While we're talking history podcasts, Revolutions (by Mike Duncan of The History of Rome), The Age of Napoleon, and Hardcore History are also great.
- rocketpastsix 8y agoCheck out the next series Revolutions by the same guy, Mike Duncan. Its absolutely fascinating and when he gets to the French Revolution he goes into so many sub stories and details.
- acjohnson55 8y agoRevolutions is fantastic. I actually listened to many of the early seasons before doing The History of Rome. It was truly enlightening to learn how the New World revolutions and French Revolution were interconnected. And it's also interesting to understand how the Roman roots of the pre-modern world and the precedent of the English Revolution informed all of the late-18th and early-19th century revolutions.
- snambi 8y agoHow could they assume the lead level changes are caused by Romans? They are separated by 4600 kilometers. That seems far fetched.
- noselasd 8y agoNot sure why it's so far fetched ? Romans used industrial processing techniques known to put lead into the atmosphere, while other civilizations at that time did to any large extent not
- snambi 8y agoThe greenland is too far from Rome. The lead levels could be from anywhere on earth.
- llukas 8y agoYou contradict yourself.
- CoolAndComposed 8y agoJust because we know the Romans used lead, doesn't mean they were the only ones or the only possible cause (both unknown unknowns). There's no contradiction, there's an unshared set of assumptions.
- lawlessone 8y agoYeah i think Julius Ceasar global leadening was a conspriacy by China /s
- CoolAndComposed 8y agoHow does that random thought happen?
- 8bitsrule 8y ago
- pacaro 8y agoThe PNAS article is out of reach for me, but I found this: http://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5657-lead-pollution-greenland-ice http://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5657-lead-pollutio... which has the graph and a little more information than the nytimes article
- abecedarius 8y agoThe giant spike around the time of Alexander's death is interesting (did they open some big new mine?), along with the relatively elevated level thereafter. It's as if the Hellenistic era and the Pax Romana were almost contiguous, with the crisis of the Roman republic as a passing interruption.
- CryptoPunk 8y ago>>It's as if the Hellenistic era and the Pax Romana were almost contiguous, They are commonly grouped together as phases of classical antiquity.