With the glass bowls a rock crystal lens was discovered, with opposite flat and convex faces.
Austen Henry Layard,Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Nimrud lens.
It has a maximum diameter of 4.20 centimeters, and a thickness of between 4.10 and 6.20 millimeters.
It has a focal length of about 12 centimeters, which makes it equivalent to a 3x magnifying glass.
Since it is made from natural rock crystal, it has not deteriorated significantly over time.
However, the poor quality of the lens does not support this hypothesis.
Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton,Ishtar and IzdubarIV
Artists impression of the palaces of Nimrud by Austen Henry Layard.
And yet here we have a lens that looks like it!
to have been produced no later than the 7th century BC!
Angel Tomas Camacho Garcia,The Surprising Story of Layard’s Lens, pp.
Therefore it is considered to be the oldestoptical instrument found so far by archaeologists.
The Nimrud lens is kept in the British Museum, where it is not currently on display.
Nimrud lens at the British museum.
Photo:Geni/Wikimedia
This article was originally published inLa Brujula Verde.
It has been translated from Spanish and republished with permission.
