Reconstruction of the city of Aventicum on Lake Murten, former capital of Roman Switzerland. The picture is taken from the book ’Aventicum - A Roman Capital City’ by Daniel Castella et al (2015).
"We are polluting the rivers and the natural elements, and even ruining the very thing that is essential to life - the air." These words were not spoken by nature conservationists in the 21st century but flowed from the pen of the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. In fact ancient history researchers agree today that even in Roman times the environment was being polluted - by unfiltered wastewater, the mining of metals such as iron or lead and clear-cutting of the forests. Lake Murten did not escape these depredations, as a new Eawag investigation has shown. For the study, the research team led by paleolimnologist Mischa Haas took a ten-meter long sediment core from the deepest part of Lake Murten, which enabled them to create a reconstruction of environmental conditions that spanned several centuries. The results of the sediment-core analysis surprised the researchers: "We had not expected that signs of the Romans would be so evident in the lake sediment," comments Mischa Haas. He is referring to the varves, clearly recognizable in the sediment core and stemming from the period in which the Romans flourished on Lake Murten.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
