View
comments
Unusually high levels of mercury have been found in human bones dating back 5,000 years, which experts say is the oldest evidence of mercury poisoning.
The bones, uncovered in Spain and Portugal, are from 370 individuals who lived during the Late Neolithic and Copper Age, with the highest levels of mercury found among those living in the beginning of the latter – between 2900 and 2600 BC.
A team of scientists led by the University of North Carolina Wilmington concluded the poisoning was due to exposure to cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral that forms naturally in thermal and volcanic areas worldwide.
When smashed, it transforms into a brilliant red powder.
Historically, the powdered form has been used to produce pigments in paint or was consumed as a 'magic' drug.
Unusually high levels of mercury have been found in human bones dating back 5,000 years, which experts say is the oldest evidence of mercury poisoning
'In Iberia, the use of cinnabar as a pigment, paint or medical substance began by the Upper Paleolithic and intensified gradually in the Neolithic and Copper Age,' researchers shared in the study published in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
'There is evidence for mining of the extensive
