An acidic water supply in a rock containing lead would tend to increase its lead ion content in cold weather when stream flow is at a minimum. Both drink this or eating animals drinking it would result in increased lead absorption. Lead ore exists in many areas in south France, it would be interesting to know if the bones were from one of these areas.

I am told that lead has a very sweet flavour and could be used as an artificial sweetener, people from the earliest times could have added some lead ores to their food, especially as they are easy to find and some are soft to extract, they could have used them just as we add salt. That could perhaps never be proved, but accidental contamination and the making of lead containers are not perhaps the only possibilities.

I read the whole thing. They suggest it was in the mother's breast milk. We know that they didn't create "pipes" nor "aquaducts" but lead was probably the first malleable metal discovered. I would suggest (hypothesize) they made pure tead drinking cups?

"Abundant and found close to the Earth’s surface, lead was naturally one of the first metals to be mined by humans. Ancient civilizations regarded lead as more than a useful metal: Chinese sources recommend brewing elixirs with lots of lead, while Ayurvedic texts in India recommend preparing drugs with the metal. The Egyptian medical treatise, the Ebers Papyrus, even calls for powdered lead to treat eye problems.

Because of lead’s supposed medical properties—and the nice black powder it makes—it was a key part of ancient Egyptian kohl makeup. Even today, kohl often contains lead—which is why the Food and Drug Administration warns consumers against using this ancient cosmetic. “If something can get into the eye,” says toxicologist and epidemiologist Ellen Silbergeld of Johns Hopkins University, “it can get into the body.” And despite what the ancients believed, that is not a good thing."

[slate.com]

CREDIT: British Museum

Amazing article..thanks!