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Roman water distribution
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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
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Lead pipes. They were used back then for the same reason they were used in the 19th century - lead is easy to mould into a nice cylindrical form. The water causes mineral buildup on the inside of the pipes which stops a lot of the lead leaching, so it's not as horrific as it sounds, but it's still far less safe than anything that would pass inspection today, lol.
I have a new (?) theory for the slow downfall of the roman empire.
That's actually been tossed around since the 80s! In the modern day, it's thought by most (though not all - the theory is still valid, just less widespread) that it wasn't a major contributor - the lead in the water was about 10x what we would consider acceptable today - by contrast, some 19th century pipes had concentrations hundreds of times past the maximum legal limit!
But lead was a problem for another reason - they boiled down their sweeteners in lead vessels because the lead made it taste sweeter. THIS particular concoction would have thousands of times past the maximum legal limit of lead in food - itself already higher than legal limits for water!
You get a lot of variance in Roman corpses tested for lead that way - some of the folks are just at background levels of lead, not too different from today - while some of the more lead-heavy bodies are rockin' 1950s "We burn leaded gasoline into the air" levels of lead. One expects they were the ones fond of their sweetener...