the Nimrud Lens is sitting in the British Museum and nobody will say the obvious thing out loud

found in 1850 by Layard at Nimrud, Iraq. it's ground crystal, plano-convex, 3cm across, 7th century BCE Assyrian palace context. it focuses light. like, it's a lens. Sir David Brewster in 1853 literally called it a lens and suggested the Assyrians might have had optical technology. then the academ……