Ancient Maya Cities Appear to Have Been Riddled With Mercury Pollution

The most unlikely of archaeological sites have been found to have toxic levels of a pollutant associated with industry.

The Maya culture used heavy metal mercury to clean the soils of their urban centers.

Researchers are being told to gear up to save their health because the element's levels are so high.

Duncan Cook is the lead author of a review into the environmental legacy of the Maya.

Cook, along with a team of researchers from the US and UK, reviewed data sets collected from 10 Classic Period Maya dig sites and their surrounding areas.

A comparison of readings from across the region identified at least one area contaminated with aconcentration of mercury that exceeds or equals modern benchmark for toxic levels.

The archaeology of the region which tells us that the Maya were using mercury for hundreds of years is what makes it difficult to explain.

Mercury is a lustrous grey metal that can melt at a relatively low temperature and turn into a thick fluid.

Mercury has been used in a variety of ways through the years. Mercuric nitrate was used to stiffen felt for hats and was said to poison the nervous systems of the artisans who worked with it.

The most common form of mercury through the ages is the crystal mercury sulfide.

It is found near hot springs and volcanic activity and has been used as a coloring agent in art pieces for thousands of years.

Cinnbar was more than just a color of red for the Maya.

"For the Maya, objects could contain ch'ulel, or soul-force, which resided in blood."

The red color of cinnabar was an important and sacred substance, but it was also deadly and its legacy continues to this day.

The limestone foundations on which the ancient Maya infrastructure was built don't have the kind of geology that would make for good cinnabar production. You have to travel to the edge of the Maya world to find a good source of the mineral.

According to archaeological studies, cinnabar was being mined in Central America as far back as the second to first millennium BC.

By the time the Maya raised monuments to their gods across the land around the third centuryCE, cinnabar was already in common use, mostly in its powdered form to add color to decorative pieces.

Usually the metal is found in association with a ritual cache or elite funeral. It's not clear how the Maya got their hands on this form of the element.

A growing body of studies indicates that the toxic metal was in the Maya's bones, but it's not clear if that's the case.

One of the last rulers of the Maya city of Tikal, a king called Dark Sun, was obese, which could be a sign of a disease caused by mercury poisoning.

Past health concerns aside, the researchers emphasize a need for today's archaeologists to take precautions to protect themselves from the toxic metal.

Tim Beach, a geoarchaeologist from the University of Texas, says that this result is proof that there was a Mayacene.

The effects of human activity through history seem to have been caused by metalContamination.

The research was published in an environmental journal.