Scientists have discovered what could be the world’s first polluted river, contaminated 7,000 years ago by Neolithic humans who have been producing copper metals from ores.
The now dry riverbed in the Wadi Faynan region of Southern Jordan has given evidence of the early pollution caused by copper combustion.
Findings reveal a turning point in history where humans moved from making tools out of stones to making tools out of metal. This period is known as the
Chalcolithic Age.
Also called the Copper Age, it is a transitional period between the late Neolithic or Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age.
Populations at this time were experimenting with fire, experimenting with pottery and copper ores and all three of these components are part of the early production of copper metals from ores.
Technological innovation and the spread of the adoption and use of metals in society mark the start of the modern world.
People created copper at this time by combining charcoal and blue green copper ore found in plenty in the area in pottery vessels and heating the mixture over a fire. Process was time consuming and labour intensive. This is why it took thousands of years before copper became a central part of human societies.
From Copper Production to River Pollution- These objects were created in the earliest phase of copper production.
- These were primarily symbolic.
- With passage of time, copper production expanded.
- Mines, large smelting furnaces and factories were built by 2600 BC.
- Jordan is home to the world’s first industrial revolution
- Slag, a waste product of smelting remained.
- Pollution led to wide spread health problems- health impact has been seen in human bones dating to this period.
- Copper Age was followed by the Bronze Age which began around 3200 BC.
