8th-century BC piece of rock crystal unearthed in 1850
The Nimrud lens
The lens on display in the British Museum
Material
Rock crystal
Size
Diameter: 38 mm (1.5 in) Thickness: 23 mm (0.9 in)[1][2]
Created
750–710 BC
Period/culture
Neo-Assyrian
Discovered
1850 Assyrian palace of Nimrud
Discovered by
Austen Henry Layard
Place
North West Palace, Room AB
Present location
British Museum, London
Identification
90959
The Nimrud lens, also called Layard lens, is an 8th-century BC piece of rock crystal which was unearthed in 1850 by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian palace of Nimrud in modern-day Iraq.[3][4] It may have been used as a magnifying glass or as a burning-glass to start fires by concentrating sunlight, or it may have been a piece of decorative inlay.[3]
^Cite error: The named reference layard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Brewster was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ab"The Nimrud lens / the Layard lens". Collection database. The British Museum. Retrieved Oct 21, 2012.
^Villiers, Geoffrey de; Pike, E. Roy (2016-10-16). The Limits of Resolution. CRC Press. ISBN 9781315350806.
The Nimrudlens, also called Layard lens, is an 8th-century BC piece of rock crystal which was unearthed in 1850 by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian...
Nimrud (/nɪmˈruːd/; Syriac: ܢܢܡܪܕ Arabic: النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city (original Assyrian name Kalḫu, biblical name Calah) located in Iraq, 30...
indicates that there was widespread use of lenses in antiquity, spanning several millennia. The so-called Nimrudlens is a rock crystal artifact dated to the...
"World's oldest telescope?". BBC News. Retrieved 10 May 2008. "The Nimrudlens/The Layard lens". Collection database. The British Museum. Retrieved 25 November...
700 BC: The "Nimrudlens" of Assyrians manufacture, a rock crystal disk with a convex shape believed to be a burning or magnifying lens. 13th century:...
700 BC, as do Assyrian lenses such as the Nimrudlens. The ancient Romans and Greeks filled glass spheres with water to make lenses. These practical developments...
materials as in the MythBusters effort. Diocles (mathematician) Nimrudlens Pyreliophorus Visby lenses Solar furnace Sherwood, Andrew N.; Nikolic, Milorad; Humphrey...
used as part of a telescope. Nimrudlens Schmidt, Olaf; Karl-Heinz Wilms; Bernd Lingelbach (September 1999). "The Visby Lenses". Optometry & Vision Science...
The Nimrud ivories are a large group of small carved ivory plaques and figures dating from the 9th to the 7th centuries BC that were excavated from the...
function of the oldest known lens, the Nimrudlens, is unclear (it may only have been used for decoration), lenses were probably seldom used as a magnifying...
mechanism Babylonokia Baghdad Battery Dogū Etruscan inscriptions Ingá Stone Nimrudlens Phaistos Disc Piri Reis map Stone spheres of Costa Rica Pseudohistory...
of glass suitable for the manufacture of optical systems such as optical lenses, prisms or mirrors. Unlike window glass or crystal, whose formula is adapted...
tablet of 1700 BC. A red sealing-wax cake found in the Burnt Palace at Nimrud, from the early 6th century BC, contains 10% PbO. These low values suggest...
mean knowledge of mechanics. A crystal lens, turned on the lathe, was discovered by Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud along with glass vases bearing the name...
Although British archaeologists excavated a number of Iraqi sites, including Nimrud, Nineveh and Tell Halaf in Iraq in the 19th century, they sent many of the...
Global Information