Heavy metals dispersion around medieval workshops in Mont-Lozere(France)

摘要

Studies of palaeopollutions(i.e.before the industrial revolution)are scarce in the scientific literature by opposition to modern pollutions.They are generally recorded as an event in environmental archives,i.e.temporal records(ice,peat or sediment cores)at global scale.Nevertheless,these pollutions present an environmental impact that is today obvious(lake of vegetation)and active(toxicity).Heavy metal contents in soils may be indeed similar to those resulting from contemporary pollutions.As it is difficult to track down these paleopollutions,it is necessary and important for geochemists and environmental scientists to work with mining archaeologists as they know about ancient mining and smelting activities and where to find ancient metallurgical pollution in"natural"territories.As such multiscience collaboration is not common,the environmental impact of our mining heritage is not well known.This article shows the Mont-Lozere massif,within the Cevennes National Park(France),as a good example of an actual industrial free activity being affected by palaeopollutions.Numerous medieval palaeometallurgical sites have been now reported on the Mont-Lozere.The sites are settled by slag presenting a homogeneous typology and are the location of a medieval metal elaboration.The aim of this study is to use lead isotopes as reference tracers of sources and to compare concentrations of the other heavy metals in order to understand their respective behaviour in and around the medieval workshops.