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Advanced Ancient Inventions.	Source: danflcreativo/Adobe Stock, Public Domain, Public Domain, NearEMPTiness/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

6 Advanced Ancient Inventions Beyond Modern Understanding

By Tara MacIsaac , Epoch Times We’ve lost the secret to making some of history’s most useful inventions, and for all of our ingenuity and discoveries, our ancestors of thousands of years ago are...
Burning wood polluted the air in ancient Rome. Source: Ara Hovhannisyan / Adobe Stock.

Ancient Rome’s Polluted Air was Attributed to Burning Wood (Video)

In ancient Rome , the burgeoning glass industry cast a literal shadow over the city. The demand for vast quantities of firewood to fuel glass ovens resulted in a pervasive haze known locally as "...
Senior Researcher at the National Museum of Denmark Mads Dengso Jessen holds a Viking Age window glass fragment. Source: John Fhær Engedal Nissen / National Museum of Denmark

Study Finds Out Those Barbaric Vikings Had…Stained Glass Windows?!

It is no secret that the portrayal of Vikings in popular culture has done more than its fair share to distort our ideas of what and who the Vikings were. This distortion extends across various...
A magnified perspective of photonic crystals present on the surface of ancient Roman glass.  Source: Giulia Guidetti/Tufts University

2,000-Year-Old Roman ‘Wow Glass’ Morphs Into Something Beautiful

Two millennia ago, delicate glass vessels that potentially served as containers for wine, water, exotic fragrances in ancient Rome, shattered and met their untimely demise. They found their way into...
Collection of Roman glassware collected from the wreck site. Source: ManuelAñò-ProdAqua / Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo

Impressive Roman Glass Shipwreck Found Near Corsica

A joint mission organized by underwater archaeologists from Italy and France was recently deployed to the site of the Capo Corso 2 shipwreck, which was first spotted in 2012 and is located at a depth...
Glass artifacts are evidence of Iron Age glass production from Němčice, Czech Republic. Source: I. Čižmář/Antiquity Publications Ltd

2300-year-old Glass Workshop and Ritual Sanctuary Uncovered in Czech Republic!

Němčice in the Czech Republic was a seemingly inconspicuous place with a remarkable history. Now it holds the proud distinction of being the earliest and oldest glass workshop north of the Alps!...
Glassblowing processs, with a ball of glass being heated by a kiln. Source: SvetlanaSF / Adobe Stock

Heat, Blow, and Roll: The History of Glassblowing

One of the most fascinating crafts in the art world is the practice of glassblowing. Glassblowing is the art of creating beautiful pieces of glassware by blowing air into semi-molten glass through a...
The Nimrud lens. Source: The British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Is the Assyrian Nimrud Lens the Oldest Telescope in the World?

The Nimrud lens is a 3,000-year-old piece of rock crystal unearthed by Sir John Layard in 1850 at the Assyrian palace of Nimrud, in modern-day Iraq. Since its discovery over a century ago, scientists...
Ancient Legacy And Future Applications Of Glass

Ancient Legacy And Future Applications Of Glass

Today, glass is a mundane material mostly used in construction but in history it was among the treasures of kings and their royal dynasties. The history of glass-making dates back to at least 3,600...
The Prophet Nathan’, depicted in the stained-glass of Canterbury Cathedral. Source: Canterbury Cathedral / UCL

Blood Stained Glass Panels At Canterbury Cathedral Saw Becket Die

The oldest known stained-glass windows in the world are traditionally associated with the late 11th century Augsburg Cathedral in Bavaria, Germany. Now, researchers from University College London (...
Glass Beads Help to Map Unknown Medieval African Trade Routes

Glass Beads Help to Map Unknown Medieval African Trade Routes

For several decades, a team of researchers have been carrying out excavations at old cemeteries and villages at sites in central Mali and eastern Senegal. Over the years they’ve come across a handful...
Vesuvius Eruption Turned Victim’s Brain to Glass!

Vesuvius Eruption Turned Victim’s Brain to Glass!

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius is perhaps the best-known natural disaster in the ancient world. It preserved whole towns and human remains, which have all been priceless from an archaeological point...
Researchers have solved the mystery of the origins of the best Roman glass. Source: cascoly2 /Adobe Stock

Scientists Prove Rome’s Ancient Glass Was Not From Rome!

Many of the Roman elite enjoyed notoriously luxurious lifestyles. For example, Senators and nobles liked to drink from transparent glasses which were of the highest quality. The origin of the best...
Left: Archaeologists at the Pictish King's Seat Hillfort last year. Right top: A fragment of Anglo-Saxon drinking vessel. Right bottom: A decorated spindle whorl, which was used in textile production.       Source: AOC Archaeology Ltd / Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust

Ancient Pictish Hillfort Unearthed In Scotland Helps Kill Dogma

Archaeologists digging at an ancient Pictish hillfort, near Dunkeld in Scotland , prove it was an important power center for an elite class. The 7th to 9th century King's Seat Hillfort, “ the Fort Of...
The fragment from the Roman fish bottle, the only one of its type ever discovered in Britain. Source: National Trust Images / Rod Kirkpatrick

1800-year-old Shard of Roman Glass Left A Fishy Trail From the Black Sea

The mystery of the origin of an unusual piece of glass has been solved in Britain. It has been established that it belonged to a very rare fish-shaped bottle, that came all the way from the Black Sea...
A supposed Victorian tear catcher. The real use of this type of glass vial is debatable.

Capturing Scents, Not Tears: Debunking the Myth of Tear Catchers

Victorians are often remembered for their obsession with death and mourning. It is not too surprising to discover that they had specific practices and even special objects created to further enhance...
Glass artifacts from Samarra representing the different compositional groups

Firm Evidence of Early Glass Industry in Ninth-century Palace City of Samarra

The palace-city of Samarra, capital of the former Abbasid Caliphate, was home to an advanced industry of glass production and trade, according to a study published August 22, 2018 in the open-access...
Roman marbled glass piriform unguentarium.

The Beautiful and Complex Artisanship of Glass-making in the Ancient World

In today’s society, glass is a material that is easily available. Due to mass production, glass objects are considered common and can be found everywhere. In the ancient world, however, glass-making...
Roman glass (not the legendary flexible glass). Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart.

An Unbreakable Story: The Lost Roman Invention of Flexible Glass

Imagine a glass you can bend and then watch it return to its original form. A glass that you drop but it doesn’t break. Stories say that an ancient Roman glassmaker had the technology to create a...
The Little Chapel on Guernsey

Unusual Little Chapel Built with Glass and Broken Pottery Destroyed Many Times Over – But Still Stands!

A surprising and secluded chapel – with glittering mosaics on every surface creating a fairytale quality – lies hidden in verdant, wooded hills in St. Andrew, a parish on the island of Guernsey, a...
Glass beads of all colors found in the ancient city of Ile-Ife.

1000-year-old Glass Beads Provide First Evidence of Glassmaking Development in Sub-Saharan West Africa

A newly found treasure trove of more than 10,000 colorful glass beads and evidence of glassmaking tools, makes scientists think that an ancient city in southwestern Nigeria was one of the first...
Archaeologists from Mainz reveal new findings on the history of the early-Islamic caliphate palace Khirbat al-Minya

Archaeologists from Mainz reveal new findings on the history of the early-Islamic caliphate palace Khirbat al-Minya

Archaeologists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) started excavations in September 2016 at Khirbat al-Minya, an early-Islamic caliphate palace on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel...
1600–Year-Old Glass Workshop Discovered in Israel

1600–Year-Old Glass Workshop Discovered in Israel

A newly discovered glass workshop reveals that Israel was an important center for glass production in Roman times. During excavations prior to a road construction in the Carmel Mountains a team of...
This piece of glass, a footed bowl, was blown about 1500 in Venice and enameled in the late 19th century in France.

Expert Reveals Top Secret Venetian Glassblowing Techniques from the Renaissance

Throughout history, some artists, craftsmen and chefs have carefully protected and concealed knowledge about their processes or recipes. One such art was glass-blowing in Venice, where the process...

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