Romans Were Early Pioneers of Recycling

In a recent study exploring the past, experts have found that the Romans were ahead of their time when it came to recycling. They made use of gold impurities in silver coins and kept the environment in mind by avoiding lead pollution in Greenland ice. This discovery sheds light on the Ancient Romans’ environmental consciousness and recycling practices.

Silver production polluted ancient skies

Back in the old days, when people extracted silver from rocks and refined it in mints, they inadvertently created a lot of lead pollution. This pollution didn’t just stay in one place. It wafted into the air and traveled all the way across the Atlantic, leaving behind a “pollution fingerprint” in the ice of Greenland.

In a recent report featured in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, researchers found a noteworthy decrease in lead pollution within the ice, even though the Romans were still busy making coins during the late Roman Republic.

The probable cause for this drop in pollution was a time of conflict in the first and second centuries BC. During this period, Rome faced challenges in getting silver from mines in Iberia and Southern France.

Changing silver coins didn’t explain it all

While it’s true that Romans intentionally mixed copper with their main silver coin, the denarius, as a sign of reduced silver production, this alteration in coin quality doesn’t entirely clarify the reduced lead pollution.

Roman debasement of silver coins through the centuries. pic.twitter.com/U9VFRdWhRG

— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) September 18, 2023

Even during times of social and civil strife in the first century BC, when they tampered with the purity of silver coins, the drop in lead pollution remained a puzzle.

To unravel this mystery, Dr. Jonathan Wood and Dr. Matthew Ponting from the University of Liverpool suggest the Romans recycled silver. They often obtained silver through looting after conflicts in Iberia and Southern France to use it in the minting of coins.

Findings of the research

As per the findings of the researchers, an interesting pattern emerged:

At around 120 BC, clusters of coins began appearing with very low levels of gold in them. The silver used for these coins also appears to have become part of the silver supply for coinage in the first half of the first century BC. Then, in 49 BC, a new infusion of silver with high levels of gold in it appears to enter circulation. Given that Julius Caesar returned to Rome from his battles with the Gauls in 49 BC, the researchers propose that this new silver in circulation was plundered by Caesar’s army.

Dr. Jonathan Wood pointed out, “Debasing silver was one way to deal with fluctuations in the silver supply. Melting down existing silver, either yours or someone else’s, was another. For the Romans, recycling coins would have been considerably less expensive than extracting new silver. It was a benefit for their finances, as well as for the environment.”