Did any ancient people ever encounter radioactivity?

by EyeFixIt

Is there any record or sign of that ancient people encountered radioactivity? Such as through naturally radioactive materials while mining, or radioactive meteorites?

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See here for a previous answer of mine. In short, there are essentially no naturally radioactive sources (at least, during the timespan of humanity) that are of sufficient strength to be notable without special (modern) tools of measurement. Uranium mining is one of the few pre-modern experiences that can induce measurably health effects, but even those effects only show up as slightly higher lung cancer rates — something never noticed until the modern period (19th century).