Excavation Yields Beer Bottles with Dangerous Lead Content

The excavation of a series of Georgian and Victorian cellars in Leeds, the UK has unearthed over 600 beer bottles on the site of a former inn. The findings were made by Archaeological Services WYAS in February and then the bottles were sent for analysis.

Their analysis revealed they contained alcohol and also dangerous levels of lead. According to a post in social media, Archaeological Services WYAS informed that those bottles contained beer with a pH of 5.07 and with an alcohol content of 3 percent ABV. However, the beer in the bottles contained 0.13mg/l of lead, which is far beyond the WHO-recommended safe level of lead in water of around 0.01mg/l.

Of course, this makes the beer in these excavated bottles detrimental to health. The team of archeologists suspects that the high metal content would have come from lead pipes.

The bottles were from different breweries, with most of them from J. E. Richardson of Leeds’. The team of archaeologists expects to complete its work in the area in the next two weeks from now, following which they will compile a report of their findings. The team believes the bottles perhaps dated to the 1880s.