Evidence of intentional thermal treatment of ores to produce metals, and complex metalworking around this time has been uncovered in several places throughout the Balkans ( 3– 6) as well as in the Middle East ( 7). The earliest use of metals in the form of native copper in Anatolia roughly 9,000 y before common era (BCE) ( 2) preceded the invention of extractive metallurgy and alloying at around 5,000 BCE ( 3). The discovery of metals and refinement of alloys has been fundamental to the development of modern industrialized society ( 1). Further comparison with other Pb pollution records indicates the amount of Pb deposited in the Balkans during the medieval period was, if not greater, at least similar to records located close to western European mining regions, suggestive of the key role the Balkans have played in mineral resource exploitation in Europe over the last 5,600 years. This provides an alternative view on the history of mineral exploitation in Europe, with metal-related pollution not ceasing at the fall of the western Roman Empire, as was the case in western Europe.

A steady, almost linear increase in Pb concentration after 600 BCE, until ∼1,600 CE is observed, documenting the development in both sophistication and extent of southeastern European metallurgical activity throughout Antiquity and the medieval period. We observe initial evidence of anthropogenic lead (Pb) pollution during the earliest part of the Bronze Age, the earliest such evidence documented in European environmental records. Here, we present a high-resolution and continuous geochemical record from a peat bog in western Serbia, providing a clear indication of the extent and magnitude of environmental pollution in this region, and a context in which to place archaeological findings. However, since knowledge of the timing and extent of metallurgy in southeastern Europe is largely constrained by discontinuous archaeological findings, the long-term environmental impact of past mineral resource exploitation is not fully understood. The Balkans are considered the birthplace of mineral resource exploitation and metalworking in Europe.

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