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Powered By Osteons
Personal blog · poweredbyosteons.orgsciencehistory
Powered By Osteons is a personal blog at poweredbyosteons.org about science and history. Since 2013, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 8 times, most often “Lead Poisoning in Rome: The Skeletal Evidence (2012)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-03, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Kristina Killgrove's Powered by Osteons, a bioarchaeology blog on forensic analysis of human remains. It covers her research into lead levels in the bones of ancient Romans.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Lead Poisoning in Rome: The Skeletal Evidence (2012)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-10-08
What Hacker News says?
Three things I've read. Romans complained in writings about the use of lead acetate in wine. They also used lead cook pots to reduce grape juice to Defrutum. And the Romans used to smelt lead in Italy and banned the practice eventually. I've never seen a description of a Roman lead smelting operation but I can imagine. On the other hand I haven't seen anyone trying look for lead poisoning in Roman era bones. Just lo…
Comment linking /2012/01/lead-poisoning-in-rome-skeletal.html
on “Lead: America's Real Criminal Element (2013)”Submitted Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot as a story · 346 points
HN discussionBioarcheaologists have been finding out all sorts of new stuff recently using forensic tools to analyze human remains. One of my favorite blogs along these lines is Kristina Killgrove's "Powered by Osteons" which discusses her research into lead levels in the bones of ancient Romans, among other interesting things: http://www.poweredbyosteons.org From a more specifically historical point of view, it's true that we k…
Comment linking /
on “Fully dressed and preserved 350-year-old corpse of French noblewoman found”Submitted Lead Poisoning in Rome: The Skeletal Evidence (2012) as a story · 39 points
HN discussionSubmitted Homo Naledi 3D Scans as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Happens When You Report Plagiarism to a Journal Editor as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lead Poisoning in Rome – The Skeletal Evidence as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Archaeology and GitHub as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
