ABSTRACT
Although it is clear that lead was used almost universally throughout the ancient cultures it remained very much a background metal and assumed a pre-eminent position only when the Romans devised their elaborate projects for providing their towns and houses with water. The Romans’ lead technology was impressive. They manufactured sheet lead by casting onto flat sand beds and had ingenious methods of rolling and jointing pipes which were the basis of their water-carrying systems. The amount of lead consumed by the Romans was extraordinary. In building the great aqueduct at Lyons it had been estimated that 12000 tons of lead were used on just one of the siphon units, and the description of the construction of the leaden water systems given by Vitruvius shows what major undertakings these were. The Romans were avid in their demand for lead, and after the conquest of Britain the native mines were extensively worked. They were a plentiful source, for Pliny described lead being found ‘in the surface stratum of the earth in such abundance that there is a law prohibiting the production of more than a certain amount’.
