
An Ice Core Reveals the Economic Health of the Roman Empire - montrose
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/science/ice-core-lead-roman-empire.html
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acjohnson55
This 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.

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DanAndersen
I'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
Thanks 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.

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pacaro
The PNAS article is out of reach for me, but I found this:
[http://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5657-lead-
pollutio...](http://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5657-lead-pollution-
greenland-ice)

which has the graph and a little more information than the nytimes article

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abecedarius
The 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.

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CryptoPunk
>>It's as if the Hellenistic era and the Pax Romana were almost contiguous,

They are commonly grouped together as phases of classical antiquity.

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brlewis
Wouldn't the lead levels also be affected by variations in each year's winds?

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snambi
How could they assume the lead level changes are caused by Romans? They are
separated by 4600 kilometers. That seems far fetched.

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noselasd
Not 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

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snambi
The greenland is too far from Rome. The lead levels could be from anywhere on
earth.

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llukas
You contradict yourself.

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CoolAndComposed
Just 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.

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lawlessone
Yeah i think Julius Ceasar global leadening was a conspriacy by China /s

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CoolAndComposed
How does that random thought happen?

