Ancient Teeth Reveal Human Toll of Medieval Britain's Lead Industry
Archaeologists have used chemical analysis of medieval tooth enamel to determine that lead mining in England's Peak District restarted by the mid-7th century. This study provides new insights into the industrial history and health impacts of lead exposure on medieval populations.
Why it matters
This research demonstrates how biological archives can reconstruct industrial history when traditional archaeological evidence has been destroyed.
The first definitive evidence of when post-Roman lead production began in one of Europe's largest medieval lead-producing regions, the Derbyshire Peak District in central England, has been uncovered by archaeologists, after centuries of mining had erased much of the archaeological evidence.
With Roman and medieval lead waste repeatedly re-smelted during the 16 th to 19 th centuries, many of the industrial traces archaeologists would normally rely on had disappeared.
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