Testing of ancient sediment from two lakes in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula has revealed “crazy” high concentrations of mercury, as one researcher puts it, confirming findings from other regions of the Mesoamerican civilization
i consider chemistry one of the great filters for civilization.
similar thing happened to Romans, and almost Victorians.
discovering new chemicals which are useful, but not figuring out they are poisonous. We did the same thing with asbestos, and leaded fuel and might have done it with micro plastics.
and PFAS
Interestingly, it’s also been proposed for the Vinča culture’s transition into Chalcolithic.
elaborate please
Well, they seem to have been thriving, are the oldest examples of copper tools, copper smelting, even bronze and, debatably, writing. And then, they suddenly went into decline and, over the course of some 300 years, basically vanished, with the tech, culture, and metallurgy going with them. It’s not entirely clear why, it was probably a mix of factors, but one hypothesis was that heavy metal poisoning contributed.
See, while they definitely did mine, smelt, and make things with copper, they’re usually considered a stone-age culture, partly because they mostly didn’t use copper for tools, instead using it for ornaments and decorating pottery. As you may imagine, using random ores to make pots, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing, especially when of them is cinnabar, isn’t the best of ideas.
that’s, very interesting
We still do it even when we know it’s poisonous and is killing us. Fossil fuels and coal for instance.
yep. we’re too good at killing ourselves
God plays such humorous practical jokes
I agree, but which god? Given the conditions, it could’ve been Ixtab, or even Nohochacyum or Kisin, but my money is on Tunkuruchu. That owl is still pretty upset about that party.
Gotta be Tepoz, all that mercury would have ruined the pulque
