Archaeologists have not noticed them for over a century. We are talking about optical lenses - thin instruments made of various materials that prove the existence of advanced optics already in ancient times.
Were people several thousand years ago capable of making precise optical instruments with which one can correct astigmatism, observe distant stars and carry out work on a microscopic level?
Ancient lens specialist Robert Temple (famous for his book on the space knowledge of the Dogon tribe "The Mystery of Sirius") is sure not only of this, but also that the evidence of such an unexpected assumption has been at hand for at least a hundred years.
Over the past three decades, Robert, demonstrating inhuman stubbornness and developing his own special method of work, has been running around the world, having found out during his trips that there are a huge number of items in museums, mistakenly recorded as jewelry, beads, etc. However, their real purpose was quite different - to improve the visibility of distant or microscopic objects, to focus sunlight for the production of fire and even for orientation …
The first surprise for the researcher turned out, he wrote in his monograph "The Crystal Sun", that in the classical texts, as well as in the oral cultural and religious traditions of many peoples, there are numerous indications of the existence of optical devices in them. These indications could well have long ago attracted the attention of historians and archaeologists, prompting them to seek out the devices described.
However, as the author bitterly admits, a negative tradition has developed in the scientific community, which denies the possibility of the existence of any advanced technology in antiquity. So, for example, some objects, whose shape and material inevitably suggest that they served as lenses, were classified as mirrors, earrings, or, at best, as incendiary glasses, that is, after all, lenses, but used exclusively for focusing the sun's rays and lighting fires.
Paradoxically, the small crystal spheres made by the Romans and used by them as lenses, when filled with water, were painted as vessels for cosmetics and perfumery. In both cases, according to Robert, the special shortsightedness of modern science, which he intends to prescribe good glasses, was manifested.
Promotional video:
Miniature models of the times of Pliny
Ancient references to lenses are relatively easy to trace already from the time of Pliny the Elder (1st century), although, as we will see later, similar indications can be found in the "Pyramid Texts", which are more than 4000 years old, and even earlier - in the same Ancient Egypt.
In his Natural History, Pliny describes the laborious work of miniature objects by Calikrates and Mirmekid, two ancient Roman painters and artisans, roughly as follows: “Calikrates was able to make models of ants and other tiny creatures whose body parts remained invisible to other people … A certain Mirmekid earned himself fame in the same area, having made a small cart with four horses from the same material, so tiny that it could be covered with its wing fly, and the same size of the ship.
If Pliny's stories make a big impression, then the mention of a miniature copy of the Iliad, made on such a small piece of parchment that the entire book could fit in a nutshell, is no less disturbing, as Cicero, the author of the previous century, was the first to speak about it. The closer to us, the more often classical authors include in their works data on these now lost objects, the manufacture of which obviously required the use of optical instruments.
According to Temple, “The first modern inventor of optical instruments - apart from magnifying glasses - was the Italian Francesco Vettori, who in 1739 created the microscope. Vettori was a connoisseur of ancient gems and said that he saw some of them, the size of half a grain of lentils, which, nevertheless, were skillfully processed, which he considered impossible, if not admit that the ancients had powerful magnifying devices.
It is when working with ancient jewelry that the existence of a now-lost optical technology becomes apparent.
Many experts intuitively pointed to it for several centuries, nevertheless, for some reason, this fascinating area of the history of science remained completely unexplored.
Karl Sittl, a German art critic, back in 1895, claimed that there is a portrait on a stone barely 6 millimeters in diameter from the Pompeii Dam, the wife of the Roman emperor Trajan, who lived in the 1st century. Sittle pointed to it as an example of the use of optical magnification by ancient carvers.
The Stockholm Historical Museum and the Shanghai Museum house artifacts made from different metals such as gold or bronze, which are clearly visible in miniature work, as well as numerous clay tablets from Babylon and Assyria display microscopic cuneiform marks.
Such tiny inscriptions were so numerous, primarily in Greece and Rome, that Robert Temple had to abandon the idea of finding and classifying them all. The same is true for the lenses themselves, of which he did not expect to find more than a few pieces, but in the English edition of his book he cites as many as 450!
As for the glass spheres used as incendiary glasses and for cauterizing wounds, they have also been preserved in many different museums, despite their fragility, but have always been classified as vessels for storing special liquids.
From death rays to ancient Egyptian optics
The fact that the optical technologies of antiquity are not at all an illusion, an "optical illusion" can be understood if you carefully re-read the classics, carefully search through museum catalogs and reinterpret some myths. One of the most obvious examples from the latter area is the legend of divine fire, which was transmitted to people by different heroes, as happened with Prometheus - it is enough just to accept that people possessed tools capable of "receiving fire from nowhere."
The Greek author Aristophanes generally speaks directly in his comedy "Clouds" about the lenses with which they kindled fire back in the 5th century BC. e. Apparently, the druids were able to do the same. They used transparent minerals to bring out the "invisible substance of fire."
But the most striking application of this technology we find in Archimedes with his giant mirrors. There is no need to recall here the full scientific contribution of this genius, who was born in Syracuse and lived from 287 to 212 BC. e. However, it must be said that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 by the Roman fleet of Claudius Marcellus, Archimedes managed to set fire to the Roman triremes by focusing and directing the sun's rays at them using huge, presumably metal mirrors.
The veracity of this episode was traditionally questioned until November 6, 1973, when Ioannis Sakas repeated it in the port of Piraeus and set fire to a small ship with 70 mirrors.
Evidence of this later forgotten knowledge is found everywhere, revealing the fact that the lives of ancient people were much richer and more inventive than our conservative mind can sometimes admit. It is here that the old adage that the world is seen depending on the color of the glass through which we look at it is justified better than anywhere else.
Another important find that Temple introduces to us is the fruit of hard work in the field of bibliography and philology. It was to them that Dr. Michael Weitzman from the University of London devoted his time, he showed that the term "totafot", which is used in the biblical Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy to denote phylacteria fixed on the forehead during a religious service, was originally called an object that was placed between the eyes …
And as a result, we have before us another description of glasses, and, in the opinion of Weitzmann, the best connoisseur of ancient Jewish history in England, - glasses that come from Egypt.
There is nothing strange that in the land of the pharaohs they were familiar with them even before the pharaohs themselves appeared there. After all, this is the only way to explain the presence of microscopic drawings on the handle of an ivory knife, which was found in the 1990s by Dr. Gunther Dreyer, director of the German Institute in Cairo, at the Umm el-Qaab cemetery in Abydos.
It is surprising that the knife dates from the pre-dynastic era, the so-called. "Period of Nagada-II", that is, approximately XXXIV century BC. e. In other words - it was made 5300 years ago!
Umm el-Qaab knife with incredible precision miniatures on the handle
This real archaeological mystery presents us - which can only be appreciated with a magnifying glass - a series of human figures and animals, whose heads do not exceed one millimeter.
Temple seems to be absolutely convinced that optical technology originated in Egypt and was used not only in the production of miniature images and in everyday life, but also in the construction and orientation of buildings in the Old Kingdom, as well as to produce various lighting effects in temples through polished drives and when calculating time.
The false eyes of the statues of the IV, V and even the III dynasties were "convex crystal lenses, perfectly processed and polished", they increased the size of the pupils and gave the statues a life-like appearance.
In this case, the lenses were made of quartz, and evidence of its abundance in ancient Egypt can be found in large numbers in museums and books on Egyptology. Thus, it turns out that the "Eye of Horus" was another type of optical device.
Leyard lens and others
The prototype of Temple's extensive series of evidence was the Layard lens.
It is this pebble that is at the very beginning of its thirty-year epic and, due to the enormous importance that it represents for a profound revision of history, is kept in the Western Asia Department of the British Museum.
Layard lens (aka Nimrud lens)
The lens was found during excavations by Austin Henry Layard in 1849 in Iraq in one of the halls of the palace in Kalhu, also known as the city of Nimrud. It represents only a part of the complex of finds, which includes a huge number of objects belonging to the Assyrian king Sargon, who lived in the 7th century BC. e.
It is an ellipsoidal rock crystal object, 4.2 centimeters long and 3.43 centimeters wide, with an average thickness of 5 millimeters.
This lens originally had a frame, perhaps of gold or some other precious metal, fitted with great care, but it was stolen and sold by excavation workers. Most surprising, however, is that we are talking about a real plano-convex lens, which has been cut in the shape of a torroid, completely irregular in the eyes of a layman, and with numerous slots on the flat surface. At the same time, it is absolutely clear that it was used to correct astigmatism. Therefore, the diopter grading on this lens is different in different parts of it, from 4 to 7 units, and the diopter increase levels range from 1.25 to 2.
The manufacture of such a device required the highest precision. At first, its surface was completely flat on both sides and had perfect transparency - a quality that, of course, is now largely lost due to numerous cracks, dirt clogged into micropores, and other influences that inevitably leave their marks on an artifact dating back 2,500 years.
It is essential that the lens is the size of an eyeball and even matches the parameters of some modern standard lenses.
When Temple stumbled upon the history of this lens and completed its analysis, his work began, leading today to the identification and study of more than 450 lenses around the world. The discoverer of Troy, Schliemann, found 48 lenses in the ruins of a mythical city, of which one was especially distinguished by the perfection of the workmanship and traces of familiarity with the engraver's tools.
In Ephesus, as many as 30 lenses were found, and, characteristically, they were all concave and reduced the image by 75 percent, and in Knossos, Crete, as it turned out, lenses were made in such quantities that they even managed to find a real workshop of the Minoan era for their production …
The Cairo Museum contains a copy of a round lens from the 3rd century BC. e., five millimeters in diameter, preserved in excellent condition and increasing by 1.5 times.
In the Scandinavian countries, the number of discovered ancient lenses is approaching a hundred, and on the ruins of Carthage, 16 of them were found - all plano-convex, all made of glass, with the exception of two made of rock crystal.
Obviously, after the publication of the book "The Crystal Sun" and its translation into other languages, new lenses, incendiary glasses, "emeralds" and other evidence of the optical art of antiquity will be found, which have been gathering dust in museums for many decades or even centuries without any sense.
However, one should not see in these evidences traces of aliens on our Earth or the existence of some forgotten civilizations with extremely advanced technologies. All of them only point to the normal evolutionary development of science and technology, based on the study of nature through the accumulation of empirical knowledge, through trial and error.
In other words, we have before us evidence of the ingenuity of human genius, and only man is responsible both for the occurrence of such miracles and for their oblivion.
Millennial glasses
We already know that the biblical term "totafot" was probably of Egyptian origin and meant an object similar to our glasses. However, the best example of the use of glasses in antiquity is given to us by the infamous Nero, about whom the same Pliny provides comprehensive information.
Nero was short-sighted and, in order to observe gladiatorial fights, used "emeralds", pieces of greenish crystal, not only correcting visual defects, but also visually bringing objects closer. That is, we are talking about a monocle, which, quite possibly, was held on a metal stand, and its lens was probably made of a green gem such as an emerald or of convex-faceted glass.
In the last century, experts have debated a lot on the topic of Nero's myopia and came to the conclusion that the invention of means of correcting vision two thousand years ago is quite possible, contrary to the traditionally accepted opinion about the appearance of glasses in the 13th century.
Temple concludes: "The ancient spectacles, of which there were many, in my opinion, were the kind of pince-nez that was fixed on the nose, or the kind of theater binoculars that were brought to the eyes from time to time."
As for the question, whether or not they had any frames, then, apparently, it can be answered positively: the frames were and they were attached, just like now, behind the ears.
“It is possible that these frames were made of soft and short-lived materials like leather or even twisted fabric, and because of this they fit very comfortably on the nose. However, I believe that most of the ancient convex lenses of glass or crystal used to correct vision were never worn permanently on the face. I think that they were held in the hand, for example, when reading, brought to the page like a magnifying glass, in those cases when any word on the page was illegible, concludes Temple.
Roman magnifying glasses
According to the author of The Crystal Sun, the Romans were particularly talented in the manufacture of optical instruments! A lens from Mainz, found in 1875 and dating from the 2nd century BC. e., is the best example of this, as well as its contemporary from Tanis, found in 1883, now kept in the British Museum.
Mainz lens
However, in addition to lenses, there were large quantities of "incendiary glasses" - small glass vessels 5 millimeters in diameter, which were filled with water and therefore could bring objects closer or increase in size, focus the sun's rays and were used to kindle fire or cauterize wounds.
These glass spheres were very cheap to make, which compensated for their fragility, and many museums around the world boast an extensive collection of their samples, although they were still considered containers for perfumery.
The author identified 200 of them and believes that they are incendiary glasses for everyday use, much rougher than the high-quality polished and therefore expensive lenses that were used already 2500 years ago in Ancient Greece.