Crete-Mycenaean culture and religion as part of the Indo-European culture of the Bronze Age of Eurasia

LENSES AND PRODUCTS FROM MINING CRYSTAL. Findings of the Epoch of the Bronze Age from the Troy, the Crete and the Mycenae

A lot of highly artistic products of the finest work related to the Bronze Age – gems, jewelry, and products from rock crystal were found. The carving on gems is so miniature that it is unclear how and how ancient craftsmen could create such a miracle. Products made of gold are also striking in the fineness of the work. The crystal cup from Mycenae in the form of a swan and a top of the crystal of Trojan work would be extremely difficult to do without special locksmithing. Also in the region were found lenses from crystal. For more than a century scientists did not pay attention to them. We are talking about optical lenses of thin instruments made of different materials, which prove the existence of developed optics already in ancient times. Were people able to make precise optical instruments several thousand years ago, with the help of which it is possible to correct astigmatism, observe distant stars and perform work at a microscopic level? In Ephesus, as many as 30 lenses were found, and, interestingly, they were all concave and reduced the image by 75 percent. In Knossos, Crete, it was found set lens. They were made in such quantities that even managed to find a real workshop of the Minoan era for their production. Tarnished and scratched lens-like pendant made of rock crystal. Minoan culture about 1450 BC. Size 1.2 cm Museum Metropolitan, New York Accession Number 26.31.403. Was this object originally a lens? It is possible, and it is for Minoans that there are many such types of items. Originally – probably a lens in the form of a shield, then for some reason it was polished from both sides of the center. Minoan culture. Around 1450 B.C. Size 1.3 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Accession Number 26.31.404.

pic.36 Photo of crystal lenses found by J. Sakellarakis.

The rock crystal lenses, found by Jannis Sakellarakis in the Ideon Cave (Ida Mount in Crete, near Knossos) – the first diameter of 8 mm, the second 15 mm. Photo by J. Sakellarakis. In fact, fine work, increasing the capacity – nominal 20 + -fold and 10-fold, useful 7-fold and 25-fold – and the question. Why is such a laborious item manufactured? A similar in quality lens was also found in the Palace of Knossos back in 1921 by the famous archaeologist Evans, the discoverer of this object, several more lenses a few years later by Fosdike in the Mavropelio cemetery, and it was this archaeologist who first suggested that they could have had optical use. And, interestingly, several more lenses were found in Amatos (near Limassol) when excavating the temple of Aphrodite among other small gifts to the goddess (gems, beads, amulets), probably refers to the archaic Ancient Greece, that is, the 8th-6th centuries. BC. The lens found in rock crystal from Knossos Palace has a diameter of 14 mm, an increase of 11-fold. Found in 1921 by Evans.

pic.37 Photo with wooden vessels from the swamps of Western Siberia.

The reverse side is silver foil and therefore it was assumed that this is some sort of insertion – for example, in a ring. So most likely this mirror. The first glass mirrors were made according to this scheme. In itself, outside the optical system, a mirror of this kind is useless. But for a number of complex systems of lenses and mirrors, it is important and necessary. A number of Trojan crystal lenses have traces of silver, so, probably, they were also used as mirrors. The description of finds confirming the high level of knowledge of the ancients in optics and crystal processing methods could be continued, but the available information allows us to state that in the past there was a high level of knowledge that the current civilization began to master only in the 17th century. The most interesting monuments of this kind are the small vessel found in the grave Omicron of circle B, carved from a whole piece of rock crystal. Crystal was widely used in Aegean art for decorating weapons and making beads, but the second whole vase from this material was not found. It’s more like a ladle than a vase. A small (13.2 cm long) bowl is made in the form of a duck: the bird’s body forms the vase’s receptacle, its tail is its drain. The head, gracefully turned on a thin neck, is a handle. It is dated to the 16th century. BC. The laconism of execution, which is combined with the workshop by transferring the characteristic forms of the bird, is striking. Smooth outlines of the vase perfectly harmonize with the material from which it is made. The outstanding quality of performance has led some researchers to suggest that this thing is Egyptian imports. However, this motive is typical for the culture of the Abashev culture of the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. In the marshes of western Siberia, vessels of wood of the same shape were found. To the same culture are the finds of vessels with the image of a meander and war chariots. Crystal vessel in the form of a duck from the grave Omicron circle B. XVI century. BC. e. On the right is a photo of the finds from the marshes of Western Siberia, the beginning of 2 thousand BC. The discoverer Troy Schliemann found 48 lenses in the ruins of a mythical city, one of which was particularly distinguished by the perfection of dressing and the traces of familiarity with the engraver’s tools. That two of them had a diameter of 25 mm, one 50 mm and one 54 mm, the latter having focal length of 150 mm. One of them had a hole in the center (catalog number Aar 230)] But-interestingly, the ancient artisans did not remove the chamfer from the edge of the lens, as a result of which the edge had to be very sharp. In the same place were found other lenses from crystal. When H. Schliemann showed the Trojan gold to the best English jeweler, he noted that such things could only be made with the help of a magnifying glass. Later in the last treasure, dozens of mysterious «lenses» from rock crystal were found, and among them there was one that gave a twofold increase. On some lenses there are traces of copper and silver. Recall that the lens from Knossos had a silver substrate. that is, the lens was used as a mirror, as part of a complex optical system. A lens with an aperture could be used as a mirror in a system similar to the Maksutov-Cassegrain optical system. In the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin there is an exhibit Cat. No. 257 Aap 257, P 384 a round plate of silver with a diameter of 3.75 cm.. It was she who served as a reflector in this device. In Priam’s treasure, there were also blanks for lenses and precious stones. Along with products made of precious metals in Mycenaean tombs, things were found from other materials. From the translucent alabaster, a three-handed goblet was cut out, distinguished by the amazing grace of shapes. His beautifully curved volute-shaped handles are made separately and attached to the body by metal pegs, just as the handles of vessels of gold and silver, which he undoubtedly imitates in shape, riveted. This product is also the most difficult to process, and could not be done without a lathe. This vessel is very close to the vase mentioned above from the palace in Kato Zakro, with the same high curved handles; this closeness makes him consider a Cretan product.

pic.38 Cup from Mycenae.

pic.39 Crystal lenses of the treasure of Priam. The State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

pic.39 Crystal necklace from the treasure of Priam. The State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

In the photo below is a piece of bronze, which as soon as it was not determined – «Hector’s Shield», or «skillet» (catalog number P 359 5817. It is in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow). But, it is likely that this is part of the grinding machine, and the convex part was needed for the production of spherical

surfaces. Primitive grinding, and the lathe was obviously transformed from a potter’s wheel. That is, the spindle was located, like a potter’s wheel, parallel to the floor. Drilling machine, too, obviously there was, otherwise it would be almost impossible to drill these beautiful crystal tops from the Schliemann treasure (photo above)

pic.40 Photo with a bronze grinding wheel. The treasure of Priam. Pushkin Museum of Pushkin.

Crystal material, although firm, but fragile. Therefore, a strong drill of the drill would lead to damage to the product, it would be split. (beat-deviation from the drilling axis). How did the part fasten without the invention of the screw? Obviously, with the help of a wedge system. Traps for the capture of wild animals have been known since antiquity, and some of them are made with the use of wedges. In the Schliemann hoard, a mass find of handicrafts-blanks made of copper, silver and gold is also of interest, just as it is a miracle to call the manufacture of four stone axes of valuable minerals. And the blade axes are not located on the same axis of rotation. The work was extremely difficult. Similar stone axes-hammers were found in the Borodino hoard. There are very interesting bronze nails, rivets with plugs. It is also possible to find the oldest drills, they should be in the form of arrowheads (now drills on ceramic tiles and glass just this shape). Why Indo-Europeans became the first steel to manufacture crystal lenses? Perhaps in that they came from the North, from the steppes of Siberia and Eurasia and originally, on their ancestral home, they made lenses from ice. Ice can easily be processed with simple instruments and ironed in a clean hand. Lenses were used, at first, obviously, as incendiary devices. (This experiment is described by Jules Verne and confirmed in Perelman’s «Entertaining Physics») The proof-word crystal-crystal from the ancient Greeks denoted both ice and crystal. (In Russian, the word-crystal borrowed) Since it is proved that the Achaeans are aliens from the north, then they moved the concept from the ice, to the crystal. And after discovering a material similar in properties to ice (transparent during processing), developed a technology for its processing, which, of course, is much more difficult than ice treatment. And at first, basically, the lenses served as incendiary devices. So, it turns out that the Greeks in the Bronze Age mastered the technology of processing crystal, then glasses for the manufacture of complex optical instruments. Moreover, this production was of a massive nature, this can be confirmed on the basis of the massive findings of lenses from crystal in Crete, but in ancient times the craft carefully concealed its secrets from competitors. As an example, skilful protection of silk-making technologies in the Byzantine Empire-Emperor Justinian organized the imperial workshops for the manufacture of silk fabrics, and became a monopolist in their sale and production. A pound of silk cost about 60 solid, 180 gr. Zolot. Due to this, the empire could hold back the opponents for a long time. But the secret of silk, the most complex handicraft devices, machines and equipment was only made public in the 15th century after the fall of the Empire and the flight of masters from the Turks to Western Europe (in France it was the Greeks who laid the silk industry under Louis XI). In Italy, Venice, the glass industry began to develop after the capture of Constantinople in 1204. The masters were taken from Byzantium. Therefore, we can say that the flowering of Europe and the Renaissance occurred due to the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453. Most of the technologies and masters came to Western Europe at this time. We can say that the Renaissance began due to the fall of Byzantium. The Empire took care of its secrets of mastery, and only when the mass introduction of technical devices, invented obviously, began in the 2—3th centuries of our era-including the universal gearbox (finding a sophisticated device with bronze gears, allowing to calculate the phases of the moon, the device is located in the Athenian Archaeological Museum). On the basis of this device, mechanical watches were subsequently developed, the main part of which is the gear system. So the closeness and mystery of the achievements of technical skill was then the norm. Therefore, even now there is some element of distrust towards the achievements of antiquity, especially technical ones. Finds in Troy give a unique cut of craftsmanship of the Bronze Age, reminiscent of finds in Pompeii and Herculaneum (only there they found an antique samovar, burzhuyku, many instruments and instruments.) The science received the most complete and complete representation about Ancient Rome thanks to these cities). To carry out the same comprehensive optical and physical studies on the possible creation of optical systems from crystal lenses of the Bronze Age has not yet been obtained, despite repeated appeals to museums and authorities. Therefore, it is difficult to assess the quality of crystal processing, the purity of processing, the optical characteristics of these objects. You can calculate the truth mathematically, but this will be inaccurate results. I tried personally to contact the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin personally about the comprehensive research of lenses from crystal, but, unfortunately, with a negative result.

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