Lead Use on Roman Ships and its Environmental Effects

Abstract

Underwater surveys along the Israeli coast have yielded numerous lead artefacts recovered from Roman shipwrecks, found due to sand shortage caused by nature and man. Unique site-formation processes resulted in intact and preserved assemblages of lead artefacts unaffected by prior salvage. These included hull sheathing, anchors, fishing gear, cooking equipment and containers. Most lead was in objects intended only for nautical use. The finds indicate that people on board ships were exposed to more lead than the general Roman population. Thus the Roman ship was a mobile source of lead pollution contaminating people and the marine environment.

Anthropogenic accumulation of metals and metalloids in carbonate-rich sediments: Insights from the ancient harbor setting of Tyre (Lebanon)

“…In Tyre, during the first century A.D., Pliny (Natural History, 9.62.133) quotes the use of leaden containers in the industry of purple dye, very prolific during Roman and, even more, Byzantine times (Jidejian, 1969). Direct pollution from the harbor is also a possible explanation, and the numerous Roman shipwrecks discovered along the Israeli coast yielded abundant Pb artifacts (Kahanov, 1999;Rosen and Galili, 2007). Lead is primarily a by-product of silver production from galena, and the precious metal was widely used in the Roman Empire, and by the Byzantines (Tylecote, 1992).…”

Archaeometallurgical analysis of metal remains from the Dor 2006 shipwreck: A clue to the understanding of the transition in ship construction

“…303-310;Piercy and Bass, 2004, pp. 399-427;Rosen and Galili, 2007). As lead is dense, it has been used as sounding leads and for weighting anchors since Antiquity (Frost, 1963, p. 5 figs.…”

A cargo of lead ingots from a shipwreck off Ashkelon, Israel 11th–13th centuries AD

“…Lead has been used in the East since the Bronze Age, during times of peace and war, for various purposes: making tools, in structures, for piping and roofing, for coffins, containers, fishing gear, ornaments and sculpture, and also as slingshot (Rosen and Galili, ). During the Roman and Byzantine periods, lead was used also in shipbuilding (Kahanov, ; Rosen and Galili, ). During the Middle Ages, lead and its compounds were used in the building industry (Viollet‐le‐Duc, : 209–220), in metal vessels (Al Sa'ad, : 385–397; Craddock, : 68–79), and in cosmetics and medications (Lev and Amar, : 428–444).…”

“…Lead cargoes that reached the coast of Israel have been discovered in shipwrecks dated from the Bronze Age through to the Roman and Byzantine periods. They include pipes and sheets dismantled to be reused, as well as ingots (Rosen and Galili, ; Raban and Galili, ; Galili et al ., ). Ingots marked with incisions were found in underwater sites of various eras, with the present find clarifying the picture for the Early Muslim and Crusader Periods.…”