Pesticides May Have Contributed to Corrosion on Roman Bowl

KENT, ENGLAND—According to a report in The National Wales, traces of pesticides have been detected on a Roman copper-alloy bowl unearthed on a farm in southeastern England in 2016. The compound chlorobenzene is known to accumulate in soil and water, and may continue to pose a threat to archaeological material, explained Luciana da Costa Carvalho of the University of Oxford and her colleagues. It was found in the spots of green-colored corrosion on the bowl, while brown-colored spots contained traces of diethyltoluamide, or DEET, which is still used in insect repellents today, Carvalho explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Scientific Reports. To read about a golden bowl belonging to the Urnfield culture that was recently unearthed in Austria, go to "A Shining Example."