Did lead poisoning contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? It’s a question historians have long debated, since the Romans sweetened their wine with lead acetate and sipped tap water that flowed through lead pipes.

Silver fueled the rise of the Roman Empire. But the ancient process of mining and extracting silver was also making the air thick with lead, scientists found.

Learn how researchers examined lead levels in ice cores dating back to the Roman Empire, and found concentrations high enough to affect IQs.

The new research adds context to a long-standing debate about the role lead pollution and poisoning may have played in the collapse of the Roman Empire. Some historians have argued that Roman elites and emperors who purportedly displayed odd,

A new study turned to Arctic ice core records between 500 BCE through 600 CE to find a link between lead pollution and widespread health decline in the Ancient Roman Empire, which most likely lowered the IQs of 80 million people.

The mass production of silver coins in the Roman Empire had an unintended effect: spewing so much lead into the atmosphere that it may have lowered citizens’ IQs.