![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Hundreds-of-lead-bricks-were-found-in-a-ship-that-sunk-between-50-and-80-BCE-credit-CUORE-Collaborat.jpeg\")
Hundreds of lead bricks were found in a ship that sunk between 50 and 80 BCE \u2013 credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS\/INFN<\/p>\n Hundreds of lead bricks were found in a ship that sunk between 50 and 80 BCE \u2013 credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS\/INFN<\/p>\n
What do dark matter, the Roman Empire, and a toxic heavy metal have in common?<\/p>\n
The answer is Mr. Ettore Fiorini who helped excavate a 2,000-year-old shipwreck whose cargo of Roman lead bars could, he believed, help him unravel the secrets of the universe.<\/p>\n
If the second sentence made no more sense than the first, let\u2019s do some storytelling.<\/p>\n
Sometime between 50 and 80 BCE, merchants or military engineers from Rome were transporting a cargo around the island of Sardinia that included hundreds of pounds of lead ingots from Spain meant for building ammunition or aqueducts.<\/p>\n
The sea was angry that day, and sent the cargo down to the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones\u2019 Locker. In 1988, the ship was discovered, and the maritime archaeologists working on it got a message from a strange address: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy\u2019s National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN).<\/p>\n
The sender was Dr. Fiorini, who wasn\u2019t interested in the historical value of the shipwreck, but wanted the lead to build a radiation shield for a particle detector deep under a mountain.<\/p>\n
Lead is used to isolate chambers from radioactivity, which is why we wear lead vests when taking x-rays. However, lead itself also contains trace amounts of a radioactive isotope lead-210, which can interfere with any observations.<\/p>\n
The experiments need to be absolutely free of any outside radioactive interference\u2014which can come from anything\u2014to ensure that the scientists can say whatever they see in their experiments is genuine and not noise. The cool thing about the Roman lead is that, having sat underwater for 2,000 years, the radioactivity had completely decayed, making the ingots perfect for isolating the chamber where the experiment would take place.<\/p>\n
What was Fiorini looking for in his experiments? Nothing less than the detection of dark matter at work on Earth.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-CUORE-particle-detector-credit-CUORE-Collaboration-and-LNGSINFN-1024x683.jpg\")
The CUORE particle detector \u2013 credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS\/INFN
\nBetween past and future<\/p>\n
Some archaeologists have brought up ethical dilemmas with destroying ancient artifacts to conduct modern experiments.<\/p>\n
The lead in the Sardinian shipwreck, for example, was melted down to create a shield for Fiorini\u2019s particle detection program. Each one of the ancient lead ingots had a stamp on it in Latin, carrying information about its origin and brand.<\/p>\n
Dr. Paolo Gorla, an INFN physicist, told ABC News Australia<\/a> that the historic value wasn\u2019t lost on Fiorini and his team, who struck a bargain with archaeologists that with money and backing from the INFN, they would help recover the shipwreck\u2014but they would get to keep the lead.<\/p>\n The archaeologists eventually agreed on the condition that each ingot be documented thoroughly.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething amazing is that the companies that extracted the lead from the mine stamped [their] brand on top of the bricks,\u201d said Dr. Gorla, adding that part of the deal was an examination by the physicists of each ingot at the molecular level to look for contaminants that might hint at the object\u2019s place of origin.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like an ID card \u2026 it helped the cultural heritage officials reconstruct from which mine in Spain this lead was extracted.\u201d<\/p>\n Gorla called it a mutual exchange between lovers of history; only that the archaeologists\u2019 love affair was with the history of Rome, and his affair was with the history of the universe.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Scientists-posing-with-part-of-the-ancient-lead-shield-for-CUORE-credit-CUORE-Collaboration-and-LNGS.jpeg\")
Scientists posing with part of the ancient lead shield for CUORE \u2013 credit, CUORE Collaboration and LNGS\/INFN<\/p>\n