Iran's 'Burnt City' and the First Artificial Eye

I spy with my golden, painted eye!

Hello ATSers, the Burnt City of Iran is under renewed excavations and yielding more and more artifacts. The stand-out find turned up 3 years ago, but seems to add a very human element to a time and place so long ago. I often notice how people feel disconnected from our past and struggle to relate to our ancestors. Our distant past (4-5000 years ago) was a place of teeming life. Large towns and cities had populations of thousands.

If you imagine a Saturday afternoon trawling around the Mall or local market...it was similar back then. You'd pass by hundreds of people, stop at your favourite stall and maybe have a drink and a chat with friends.

You might have lice and intestinal worms, but we are in the distant past right!?

The Burnt City was a thriving centre of culture that survived and overcame three destructions by fire. During excavations, a woman's grave was uncovered that indicated a wealthy life. All interesting. What's really striking is that she had the earliest artificial eye yet known....

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Regarding the other characteristics of this mysterious skeleton, Sajadi said: "Considering that the majority of females lived in Burnt City during ancient times were short, being 180 centimeters in height, this woman is known the tallest woman which has ever been identified in Burnt City."

Ancient Artificial Eyeball Found in Burnt City Presented in Rome

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Further study showed it's made of bitumen and discovered traces of gold and colour. In it's original condition, the eye was white with an iris and pupil. The superb skills of manufacter used fine gold wire to represent the capillaries! Triangles were traced emerging from the iris. The effect must have been fascinating at a time of superstition and beliefs in seers, prophets and oracles.

Referring to magnificent method practiced for making this artificial eye, Sajadi said: “Even the most delicate eye capillaries were drawn on this eyeball using golden wires with a thickness measuring less than half a millimetre. The pupil of the eye has been devised on the centre of the eyeball and there are also some parallel lines around the pupil forming a diamond shape.”

Burnt City Eye

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So we have a tall, healthy young woman with the trappings of wealth. The false eye is evidence of a creative mind too. Did she commission and design the eye or was it a master-craftsman of the city?

An example of the craftsmanship of the area.
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What's up with the shape of the head and jaw. Something just doesn't look right.

reply to post by Kandinsky



I for one find this absolutely riveting! I love it when a discovery like this flies in the face of our "modern" view of the past. I'd put this one up there with the megalithic lego blocks of south america, and the pre-historic aluminum belt buckles from china..... chest-thumping cavemen, indeed!

I'll post a link to the wiki article, but reading it they make comment that it shows much Incongruity with the neighboring civilizations at the time. It's like it appeared out of nowhere. And then we have a fake eyeball done in pretty good detail close to 3,000 BC, back then they shouldn't or wouldn't have cared about making someone an eye. This shows alot of ingenuity and vanity for the person. I think things are being brought to the surface that is showing ancient man isn't as dumb as we thought they where.

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 29-4-2010 by hoghead cheese]

Thanks for the replies

Can any of our artistic members use the descriptions to recreate what the eye would've looked like? I was going to get my art folder out and do it today, but had too much on. It seems an obvious step and yet none of the sources have made the effort! Lazy beggars!

reply to post by hoghead cheese


Why would they care any less about making someone an eye 5000 years ago than we would today? The only thing being swept aside here is your personal pre-conceptions concerning the "primitiveness" of ancient man.

On topic, this is quite fascinating. I can imagine them using a sort of primitive soldering gun to draw the lines on so finely, dipping a needle in molten gold and using it to fill the etching, bit by bit.

Flagged for awesome!

Awesome indeed!!

Artificial eyeballs 5,000 years ago? where are the alien advocates to claim it as extra terrestrial? Humans are not only as inventive as we think they are, they have been far more inventive than we can ever imagine - they had to overcome all sorts of obstacles for about 200,000 years to reach where we are today.

Kandinsky, you did it again mate! Well done and keep it up!

reply to post by Maegnas
Thanks Maegnas...appreciated

A closer look at her skull...
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The wiki article says she was 1.82 meters tall, that's TALL even for today's standards!!

Anyone attempted to reconstruct her face?

I honestly dont see why anyone would have a problem with this... I mean throughout history weve had relatively advanced civilisations... The only thing that they didnt do and we did was hit the industrial age - and its debateable wether that was good or bad :p

And just thinking about it - They DID hit the industrial age .... seeing as it led to us etc...

[edit on 29/4/10 by dawa]

This statement troubles me,

The effect must have been fascinating at a time of superstition and beliefs in seers, prophets and oracles.

reply to post by dawa


They probably did hit the industrial age, what they probably didn't hit was the materialistic age. sthey probably had more advanced technologies we can't understand because of our greed. They might have had items that were more earth friendly. They might have more properly understood our relationship with the earth being closer to the point of which they came out of it. As we know history distorts the truth, mybe it was just less distorted for them.

reply to post by onequestion



Well if you see it the way I do , one long continuous line... they did hit the Industrial age .... as that did happen and we did develop from everything before us..

That's a tall woman! And the bone structure of her face and jawline are...monstrous. I'd be interested to see other remains dug up in this same area.

Perhaps we have a Nephilim sighting?

Originally posted by onequestion
This statement troubles me,

The effect must have been fascinating at a time of superstition and beliefs in seers, prophets and oracles.

Why? Imagine an outstanding woman (very tall and wealthy) with a colourful, golden eye. She chose to have the gold highlights and triangular motifs around the iris. It's probable she was seeking to make an impression on people.