One of the oldest lenses was found in Iraq in the city of Nimrud. The lens was made from a piece of rock crystal. It was flat on one side and convex on the other. After all the research, scientists agreed that this item was very similar to a magnifying lens, which was confirmed by physical analysis of the find. At the moment, this artifact is in the British Museum.
Nimrud.
Most of the visitors, who are greatly amazed by the stone statues of the kings, the bas-reliefs, the first written cuneiform signs, the stunning works of art made of gold and gems, indifferently look at the display case with a small piece of dull rock crystal on a wire stand.
But despite this, it would seem that so many inconspicuous exhibit really deserves the closest attention. He is able to destroy all our ideas and knowledge about the capabilities of one of the most ancient civilizations of mankind.
In 1850, archaeologist Layard was excavating the city of Nimrud in Persia (now the ruins of Iraq), buried under a large hill of clay and sand. For 1300 BC. here was the capital of King Nimrod, who is mentioned in the Bible.
Layard.
And the first thing he found deeply shocked Layard. Well-preserved stone Babylonian centaurs stood at the gates of the city.
After that, the finds became more and more.
Promotional video:
Among them is this scratched rock crystal lens, which miraculously survived under the rubble. It got its name in archeology: "Nimrud lens" or "Leyard lens".
Conservatives still argue that this artifact rather served as an adornment of a palace or, perhaps, ceremonial clothes, but was not a lens in the sense in which we know it.
Scientists, however, conducted research and it turned out that Leyard's crystal lens is able to concentrate light from the sun and set fire to brushwood in the hearth. It also turned out that the lens gives a threefold magnification of objects, located a little in the distance.
But all skeptics flatly refuse to believe in the scientific use of the lens by the ancient people. There are also suggestions that the lens was used for, for example, a telescope. But, supposedly, for the simplest telescope, two lenses are needed. Indeed, the easiest way is to simply declare the artifact a "ritual object of worship," which is what the curators of the British Museum did.
Rock crystal from which the lens is made.
But in Leyard's field diaries, there are records that this lens was surrounded by decayed wood. It was clearly inserted into some kind of device. There was probably another crystal lens that served as the eyepiece of the most ancient Assyrian telescope (or perhaps the first microscope in history?), But it either collapsed or simply could not be found in the ruins.