Human and Environmental Impacts of Ancient Copper Metallurgy
A Case Study from Southern Jordan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2227278 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kyle A Knabb (0000-0003-3850-8259, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 840-848 |
| Publication date | 2019-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/706543 |
| OpenAlex | W2993535971 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
Recent research in Wadi Faynan, a copper mining and smelting region of southern Jordan, indicates that the issues of ancient pollution and contamination are far from straightforward. Whereas previous studies have stated that metal production led to widespread heavy metal contamination of the environment and of humans, this paper argues that lead contamination, a by-product of smelting local ore, is found only in microlocales and affected a small fraction of the local population. Geochemical analysis of agricultural soils revealed an increase of lead in isolated locations due to floodwaters that were contaminated by mining upstream. Distance from copper production areas was not a factor. Analysis of human remains also shows that lead contamination was restricted to a small number of individuals who were directly involved in the copper smelting. These findings suggest that the scale of environmental degradation was not proportional to the scale of economic exploitation
Archaeology · Biology · Contamination · Copper · Copper ore · Environmental protection · Geography · Metallurgy · Mining engineering · Population · Smelting · Wadi · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Environmental Science · Geology · Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity · Heavy metals in environment · Materials Science · Pollution
The Wadi Faynan Project
Late Holocene climates of the Near East deduced from Dead Sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall
Human health effects of air pollution
Statistical aspects of equivalent dose and error calculation and display in OSL dating
The circumvention of the natural biopurification of calcium along nutrient pathways by atmospheric inputs of industrial lead
Luminescence dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol
Water, Life and Civilisation
Iron Age Nomads and their relation to copper smelting in Faynan (Jordan)
Environmental impacts of ancient copper mining and metallurgy
An Imperial Legacy? An Exploration of the Environmental Impact of Ancient Metal Mining and Smelting in Southern Jordan
The local and global dimensions of metalliferous pollution derived from a reconstruction of an eight thousand year record of copper smelting and mining at a desert-mountain frontier in southern Jordan
Millennial Landscape Change in Jordan
The beginning of Iron Age copper production in the southern Levant
Land Use and an Archaeological Perspective on Socio-Natural Studies in the Wadi Al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan
Resilience Theory in Archaeology
Archaeology of Overshoot and Collapse
| Highly cited | No |
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