{"id":23844,"date":"2022-09-27T06:51:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T06:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins"},"modified":"2022-09-27T07:24:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T07:24:06","slug":"mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins","title":{"rendered":"Mercury Pollution That Could Still Pose a Health Hazard Found at Ancient Mayan Ruins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>Mercury concentrations appeared to vary from site to site, and in some cases seemed to exceed the Toxic Effect Threshold of mercury in sediments. Traces of mercury pollution that may pose a hazard to archaeologists in some instances have been discovered at ancient Mayan ruins in Central America, according to a study published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n

Said pollution does not seem to be a modern development but rather appears to be the product of the Mayan people\u2019s prolific use of the heavy metal in question and of the products it contains, during the Classic Period between 250 and 1,100 AD.<\/p>\n

The sites examined by the researchers exhibited various levels of mercury concentrations that ranged from 0.016 ppm at the Actuncan site in Belize to 17.16 ppm at the famous Tikal ruins in Guatemala. As the journal points out, the Toxic Effect Threshold (TET) of mercury in sediments is \u201cdefined as 1 ppm\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new study points at cinnabar and \u201cmercury-containing paints and powders\u201d that Mayans used for decoration as the likely culprit, as that mercury could eventually leach from surfaces it was originally applied to and into the soil and water.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Maya, objects could contain ch\u2019ulel, or soul-force, which resided in blood,\u201d said Dr. Nicholas Dunning, professor at the University of Cincinnati and co-author of the study. \u201cHence, the brilliant red pigment of cinnabar was an invaluable and sacred substance, but unbeknownst to them, it was also deadly and its legacy persists in soils and sediments around ancient Maya sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. Mercury concentrations appeared to vary from site to site, and in some cases seemed to exceed the Toxic Effect Threshold of mercury in sediments. Traces of mercury pollution that may pose a hazard to archaeologists in some instances have been discovered at ancient Mayan ruins in Central America, according to a study […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-23844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nMercury Pollution That Could Still Pose a Health Hazard Found at Ancient Mayan Ruins - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mercury concentrations appeared to vary from site to site, and in some cases seemed to exceed the Toxic Effect Threshold ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mercury Pollution That Could Still Pose a Health Hazard Found at Ancient Mayan Ruins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mercury concentrations appeared to vary from site to site, and in some cases seemed to exceed the Toxic Effect Threshold ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-27T06:51:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-27T07:24:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_18-6332a4ff54103.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mercury Pollution That Could Still Pose a Health Hazard Found at Ancient Mayan Ruins\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-27T06:51:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-27T07:24:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\"},\"wordCount\":280,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_18-6332a4ff54103.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/mercury-pollution-that-could-still-pose-a-health-hazard-found-at-ancient-mayan-ruins\",\"name\":\"Mercury Pollution That Could Still Pose a Health Hazard Found at Ancient Mayan Ruins - 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