More than a century they were not noticed by the archaeologists. We are talking about optical lenses - delicate instruments, made of different materials that prove the existence of a developed optics already in ancient times.

If they were able people thousands of years ago to make an accurate optical instruments, with which you can correct astigmatism, to observe distant star and to work on the microscopic level? Specialist in ancient lenses Robert temple (known for his book about space knowledge of the Dogon tribe "Mystery of Sirius") is sure not only that, but in the fact that the evidence is so unexpected assumptions were experts on hand already at least a hundred years. All the past three decades, Robert, demonstrating inhuman persistence and establishing his special techniques, was worn over the world, having ascertained during trips that in museums is a huge number of items, mistakenly recorded as jewelry, beads, etc. But the real purpose was quite different - to improve the visibility of remote or microscopic objects to focus sunlight to produce fire, and even for orientation...

The possible scheme of using mirrors Archimedes in the defense of Syracuse

The first surprise for the researcher was, he wrote in his book "the Crystal sun"that the classical texts, as well as in oral cultural and religious traditions of many Nations have numerous indicate they optical devices. These instructions could have long to draw the attention of historians and archaeologists, causing them the desire to find the described devices. However, as with bitterness is recognized in the scientific community had a negative tradition, which denies the possibility of the existence of any developed technologies in ancient times. For example, some items whose shape and material inevitably suggest that they served lenses were classified as mirror, earrings or, at best, like a magnifying glass, that is, all the same lens, but is used solely to focus sunlight and ignition of fires.

Paradoxically small crystalline sphere, produced by the Romans and used by them as lenses, when filled with water, were painted as containers for cosmetics and perfumery. In both cases, according to Robert, highlighting the special myopia of modern science, which he intends to write good points.
Miniature models of times Pliny

Ancient references to the lens relatively easily traced from the time of Pliny the Elder (I century), although, as we shall see, such instructions can be found in the Texts of the pyramids", which more than 4,000 years, and even earlier - in Ancient Egypt.

In his "Natural history" Pliniy describes laborious work with miniature objects, which involved Calibrat and Mermaid, two Roman artist and craftsman, approximately in such words: "Calibrate managed to produce models of ants and other tiny creatures, whose body parts were visible to other people. Mermaid deserved fame in the same field, making little carriage with four horses of the same material, so tiny that it could close your wings fly, and the same size ship."

If the stories of Pliny make the great impression, no less concerned about the mention of a miniature copy of the Iliad, made on such a small piece of parchment that the whole book could fit in a nut shell, what first says Cicero, the author of the previous century. The closer to us, the more classical authors include in their work the data about these now lost items for which manufacture, it is obvious that required the use of optical devices. According to temple, "author of the first modern optical devices - except magnifying glass - was the Italian Francesco Vettori, which in 1739 was created microscope. Vettori was a connoisseur of antique gems and said that he had seen some of them, the size of a half grain lentils, which, however, were skillfully handled, what he believed was possible, if not to admit that the ancients were powerful magnifying devices".

It was while working with ancient ornaments it is clear that there is now lost optical technologies. It intuitively pointed to many experts over the course of several centuries, however, this fascinating area of the history of science somehow remained completely unexplored. Karl Settl, a German art historian, in 1895 argued that there is a portrait on the stone diameter barely 6 mm Dam Pompeii, wife of the Roman Emperor Trajan, who lived in the first century Settl pointed at it as an example of the use of optical devices to increase ancient carvers.

In the historical Museum of Stockholm and the Shanghai Museum artefacts from different metals, such as gold or bronze, which are clearly visible miniature work, as well as the numerous clay tablets from Babylon and Assyria visible extruded microscopic cuneiform signs. Such tiny labels were so numerous, especially in Greece and Rome that Robert Temple had to abandon the idea of all of them to find and classify. The same is true for the lenses, which he had hoped to find more than a few pieces, but in the English edition of his book, causes of entire 450!

As for glass spheres used as incendiary glass and burning wounds, they also preserved many different museums, despite their fragility, but have always been classified as vessels for storage of special fluids.
From death rays to ancient Egyptian optics

That optical technology antiquity are not at all an illusion, "the illusion," you can understand, if you carefully read the classics, good parskati in the Museum catalogues and re-interpret some of the myths. One of the most obvious examples of the latter area is the legend of the divine fire, which is passed on to people of different characters, as it happened with Prometheus, just enough to accept that people had the tools that can "get the fire out of nowhere."

The Greek author Aristophanes generally directly says in his Comedy "Clouds" on the lens, which was kindled a fire in the V century B.C. The same thing could be done, apparently, and druids. They used the transparent minerals in order to identify the invisible substance of fire".

But the most striking application of this technology we meet to Archimedes, with its giant mirrors. There is no need to remind here about all the scientific contribution of this genius, who was born in Syracuse and lived with 287 in 212 B.C. However, it is necessary to say that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC the Roman fleet of Claudius Marcel Archimedes was able to set on fire the Roman screening and focused and giving them the sun's rays using a great allegedly metal mirrors.

The truthfulness of this episode traditionally has been questioned until November 6, 1973, until Ioannis Sakas not repeated it at the port of Piraeus and using 70 mirror is not set fire to a small vessel.

Evidence of this subsequently forgotten knowledge is found everywhere, exposing the fact that the life of the ancient people was much richer and more creative than sometimes able to recognize our conservative mind. It is here better than anywhere else, justified old saying that the world is depending on the color of glass through which we look at him.

Another important finding, which introduces us temple, it is the fruit of hard work in the field of bibliography and Philology. They spent their time Dr. Michael Weitzman from London University, he showed that the term " totafot", which is used in the biblical Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy to refer to phylactery, zakrepleniya on the forehead during religious services, and originally called an object that was placed between the eyes.

And the result is in front of us another description of points, and, in the opinion of Weitzman, the best expert on ancient Jewish history in England, glasses, which originated from Egypt.

There is nothing strange that in the country of pharaohs were familiar with them even before there was actually pharaohs. Because the only way to explain the presence of microscopic images on the handle of a knife of ivory, which was found in 1990 Dr. Gunter Dreyer, Director of the German Institute in Cairo cemetery, Mme El KAB in Abydos. Surprisingly, the knife dates from the predynastic period, the so-called "period of the Haggadah-II", that is, about XXXIV century B.C. in Other words - it was made 5300 years ago!

This is a real archaeological mystery is for us - that can only be assessed with the help of a magnifying glass, - a series of human figures and animals, whose head does not exceed one millimeter. Temple, apparently, absolutely convinced that optical technology appeared in Egypt and was used not only in the manufacture of miniature images in everyday life, but also in the construction and orientation of buildings in the Ancient Kingdom, as well as for the production of different lighting effects in the temples by polished drive, and when calculating time. Plug-in the eyes of statues IV, V and even III dynasties were "convex crystalline lenses, completely processed and polished, they increased the size of the pupil and gave the statues of the revived. In this case, the lenses were made of quartz, and evidence of its abundance in Drawneat Egypt in large numbers can be found in museums and books on Egyptology. Thus, it turns out that the "Eye of Horus" was another type of optical device.
Lens Layard and other

The prototype of an extensive series of evidence collected Temple, was the lens Leyard. This stone is situated in the very beginning of his thirty-year epic and because of the enormous value that it provides for a thorough revision history is stored in the Department of antiquities West Asia the British Museum.

The lens was found during excavations made by Austin Henry Saardam in 1849 in Iraq in one of the halls of the Palace in Kalju, also known as the city of Nimrod. It is only part of the complex of finds, which includes a huge number of items that belonged to the Assyrian king Sargon II, who lived in the seventh century BC

We are talking about the subject of rock crystal, ellipsoidal, 4.2 cm in length and 3,43 cm wide, with an average thickness of 5 mm

Initially, this lens was a frame, perhaps made of gold or other precious metal, fitted with great care, but she was abducted and sold working with dig. However, the most striking is that there is real PLANO-convex lens, which was carved in the shape of toroid, completely wrong in the eyes of a layman, and with numerous slots on a flat surface. It is absolutely obvious that she was used to correct astigmatism. So peep the graduations on this lens is different in different parts of it, from 4 to 7 units, and levels increase diopter range from 1.25 to 2.

Manufacturing such a device required a high precision. Its surface was first fully flat on both sides and had perfect transparency of quality, which, of course, now largely lost due to numerous cracks, dirt, tucked in the micropores, and other impacts, inevitably leave their mark on the artifact antiquity 2.5 thousand years.

Significantly, which the lens has the eyeball and even the same settings with some modern standard lenses.

When the temple came across the story of this lens and completed its analysis, began its work, which led today to the identification and study of more than 450 lenses all over the world. The discoverer of Troy Schliemann found 48 lenses in the ruins of the mythical city, one of which is especially prominent was the perfection of manufacture and traces exploring tools engraver.

In Ephesus found as much as 30 lenses, and, characteristically, they were all concave and reduced the image is 75 percent and in Knossos, Crete, as it turned out, lenses produced in such quantities that even managed to find the real Studio Minoan for their production.

In the Cairo Museum instance round lens III century BC, five millimeters in diameter, remained in excellent condition and increase in 1,5 times.

In the Scandinavian countries the number of detected ancient lenses close to one hundred, and on the ruins of Carthage, they found 16 all PLANO-convex, all made of glass, with the exception of two, made of rock crystal.

It is obvious that after the book "the Crystal sun" and its translation into other languages will be found-new lenses, incendiary glass, "emerald" other evidence optical art of antiquity, without any sense epilepsies in museums for many decades or even centuries.

But we should not see these certificates traces in our Land of aliens, or the existence of some forgotten civilizations with extremely advanced technology. All they simply indicate normal evolutionary development of science and technology, based on the study of nature by means of accumulation of empirical knowledge, through trial and error.

In other words, we have a testimony to the ingenuity of the human genius, and only people in the response as for the occurrence of such miracles, and oblivion.
Millennial glasses

We already know that the biblical term "totafot" was, probably, of Egyptian origin and meant a subject similar to our glasses. However, the best example of the use of glasses in ancient times gives us the infamous Nero, about which the same Pliny provides comprehensive information.

Nero was shortsighted and, to watch Gladiator fights, used the "emerald", slices of green crystal, not only fixed the visually impaired, but also visually priblizava objects. We are talking about monocle, which, quite possibly, was kept on a metal stand, and his lens was probably made of green gem type of emerald or convex-faceted glass.

In the last century, the experts discussed a lot on the subject of myopia of Nero and have come to conclusion, that the invention of funds adjustment of view two thousand years ago is quite possible, as opposed to the traditionally accepted opinion about the origin points in the XIII century

Temple concludes: "the Ancient glasses, which, in my opinion, there were many, was a kind of a pince-nez, zakrepleniya on the nose, or a kind of theater binoculars, which from time to time brought to the eyes".

As for the question was whether or not they have any structure, it seems, can be responded positively: rim were fastened they, as well as now, behind the ears. "It is possible that these frames are made from mild and short-lived materials, like leather or even twisted the cloth, and it is very convenient sat on his nose. However, I believe that most of the ancient convex lenses of glass or crystal, used for correction of sight, never worn constantly on the face. I think they were kept in the hand, for example, when reading, brought to the page, like a magnifying glass, in cases where a word on the page was unclear," concludes temple.
Roman magnifying glass

According to the author of the Crystal sun", the Romans were of particular talents in the production of optical devices. Lens from Mainz, found in 1875 and dated back to II century BC, is the best example of this, as is found in 1883, its contemporary from Tanis, now preserved in the British Museum. However, in addition lenses existed in large quantities "incendiary glass" - small glass vessels 5 mm in diameter, which was filled with water and therefore could zoom in or increase in the size of the subject, focusing the sun's rays and was used for kindling the fire or burning wounds.

These glass spheres were very cheap to manufacture, which compensated for their fragility, and many museums in the world can boast an extensive collection of samples, the truth is still regarded as vessels for fragrances. The author has identified 200 of them and believes that they are an incendiary glass everyday use, much more gross than qualitatively polished and therefore expensive lenses that were used already 2500 years ago in Ancient Greece.