Ancient Optics
The Pylos Combat Agate, unearthed in the Griffin Warrior Tomb at Pylos, is a sealstone only 3.6 cm (about 1.4 inches) long yet carved with breathtaking precision. A warrior plunges a blade into his foe, muscles, armor, and weapons rendered in microscopic detail unseen until modern magnification. How could Bronze Age artisans achieve this? Archaeologists point to rock crystal lenses, at least 23 of which were excavated at Knossos on Crete and dated to around 1400 BCE. One 14 mm lens provided 11x magnification, suggesting craftsmen may have used optical aids. If so, the Combat Agate demonstrates that Mycenaean Greece, drawing on Minoan techniques, possessed a practical knowledge of magnification far earlier than once assumed.
Simone Pomardi, Treasury of Atreus, 1820. Public domain.