4,800 yr old 'glass eye' found in Iran.

An amazing find this. A artifical eye from nearly 5,000 yrs ago. Now thats a long time ago in anyones books, to be able to implant an artifical eye. Obviously the eye didnt infect the patient.

Also when you take into account the Baghdad Battery, this part of the world was a real hot-bed of technology.

discovery.com
Researchers excavated this 4,800-year-old artificial eye along with bones and other artifacts at the Burnt City historical site in southeastern Iran. Judging from the contents of the grave, the archaeologists believe its owner was a young woman of elite status.

Wonder if traces of breast implants will be found?



Oh, I forgot the link... here you go...
dsc.discovery.com...


[edit on 20/12/06 by Mcphisto]

We truly don't know what people knew in the past. Everything we do today, was possible to have been done back then. Who knows? Maybe they already found the cure to cancer.

www.payvand.com...

It is still not clear what material was used to construct the eye, but it seems that it has been made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.

so maybe not as high tech as first thought
unlikely they knew the cure for cancer in that case eh

YOu would be surprised, and shocked at the ingredients that go into your everyday products.

Why would this thing be made of animal fat and tar? They clearly can make clay pottery, so why not make it out of clay? I doubt this culture could produce sculpted glass yet, but pottery was in their grasp.

Tar seems pretty crude.

Tar seems pretty crude.

you're thinking that the owner of this eye was going for something that had free movement and didn't make her look like a freak
in reality something that was basically the right colour and that didn't drop out everytime she bent over would be far more usefull

Originally posted by Marduk
www.payvand.com...

It is still not clear what material was used to construct the eye, but it seems that it has been made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.

so maybe not as high tech as first thought

the link provided is both more informative
and less cluttered with unwanted Advertisements than the thread-starter link,
thanks

the eye prosthetic (not a glass eye) was fairly crude material and caused the large, ~30ish female much discomfort, evidenced by the forensic discovery of her eye lid absess.

?i wonder if a glazed & fired clay
or else a ivory eyeball prosthetic would have been more satisfactory?

interesting find as it opens more doors of inquiry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

as a post script, as the thread presents itself, i've noticed in the ADs
in the right hand column of the thread page:

That in personally targeted Ads there are 2 providers of 'eye prosthetics' from my residence State of S.C., of the 5 listed ads related to the topic on the thread!

??I wonder if the Google Targeting that evidently uses either the ISP address, or the personal info data in our ATS bio/profile,
is either ethical or proper as 'someone' has culled or data mined info
from the ATS Registration data.....hmmmm??

Originally posted by Marduk
www.payvand.com...

It is still not clear what material was used to construct the eye, but it seems that it has been made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.

so maybe not as high tech as first thought
unlikely they knew the cure for cancer in that case eh

Your a real gem Murduk. A scientific mind if ever I saw one!

But as the above poster wrote, thanks for the different link. My one was not like that, all covered in ad's when I came across it! Sorry all.

[edit on 21/12/06 by Mcphisto]

I heard about an instrument that the ancient romans used to preform cataract surgery. It was a gold tube that was very delicate and pointed at the end. The perpose was to insert this behind the cornia and suck out the cataract. (eww) Although strainge to think about ancient cultures successfully preforming cataract surgery. So perhaps a prosthetic eye wasnt too far off.

And to the OP wouldent the tar make for a good flexible "eye" and the animal fat used for lubricant to keep the eye from being too iritable? Perhaps that is why the "eye" is still in the skull? it didnt irritate too much.

Originally posted by whatukno

Perhaps that is why the "eye" is still in the skull? it didnt irritate too much.

Unless of course, her death was a result of a growing infection and actions of the immune system.

Poor woman.

[edit on 12/21/2006 by Mechanic 32]

Unless of course, his death was a result of a growing infection and actions of the immune system.

should read
Unless of course, her death was a result of a growing infection and actions of the immune system.

Poor girl.

did you actually read the link Mechanic 32

Yes I did, and was making my correction while you were happily posting away.

Thank you.

Originally posted by whatukno
I heard about an instrument that the ancient romans used to preform cataract surgery. It was a gold tube that was very delicate and pointed at the end. The perpose was to insert this behind the cornia and suck out the cataract. (eww) Although strainge to think about ancient cultures successfully preforming cataract surgery. So perhaps a prosthetic eye wasnt too far off.

And to the OP wouldent the tar make for a good flexible "eye" and the animal fat used for lubricant to keep the eye from being too iritable? Perhaps that is why the "eye" is still in the skull? it didnt irritate too much.

A thin needle was pushed though the eye to break up the cataract and the remaining pieces suctioned out through a long tube. Evidence suggests this procedure at least had a moderate rate of vision improvement success

think about it
someone had to do the sucking
ewwww
www.unrv.com...



[edit on 21-12-2006 by Marduk]

interesting, i wonder how it 'actaully' looked at the time.

its also quite ashame, the woman was only 25/30 when she died, it also makes you wonder how an 'high class' woman can lose her eye like that aswell.

Originally posted by st3ve_o
interesting, i wonder how it 'actaully' looked at the time.

, it also makes you wonder how an 'high class' woman can lose her eye like that aswell.

Accidents happen!, i can be a Baron and Fall down a stairs, sticking a fork on my eyeball in the process
Accidents will always happen no matter we can do to avoid them.