Nimrud lens, c.710 BCE: first magnifying glass in history.
(Rock crystal, diameter: 38 mm, focal length: c.110 mm, discovered by John Layard 1850, now in the British Museum, London) The ancient Assyrians saw the planet Saturn as a god surrounded by a ring of serpents - did the astronomers of Nimrud invent the telescope?

Friday 6 March 2015: Isis bulldozes Nimrud: UNESCO condemns destruction of ancient Assyrian site as a 'war crime'.