In the 1950s , the British Museum came into possession an ancient drinking glass chalice called the Lycurgus Cup , then named for its depiction of Dionysus’s triumph over King Lycurgus of Thrace , who is shown entangled inward grape vines , on the cup’s outer surface. The craftsmanship is fantabulous — the within is polish piece the exterior has been painstakingly cutting in addition to etched to create a decorative cage-like construction around the inner cup. This shape of Roman vessels are known every bit cage cups , in addition to they were to a greater extent than oftentimes than non made during the 4th century CE. About l cups or then , to a greater extent than oftentimes than non inward fragments , convey survived , amongst solely a few inward near-complete condition. The Lycurgus Cup is ane of the best preserved Roman cage cups.
Cage cups were clearly real hard to brand , in addition to no doubtfulness real expensive , only this detail specimen stands apart because it exhibits a foreign optical phenomenon that had stumped experts for decades. Under normal lighting , the drinking glass appears jade greenish , only when lit from behind , it turns ruby red. Initially , experts weren’t for certain whether the loving cup was made of drinking glass , or was a gemstone. It wasn’t until 1990 , that researchers figured out how the color changers were brought about.
It appears that the drinking glass contains line total of gilded in addition to silvery particles that convey been terra firma upward then finely that they are solely most 50 manometers inward diameter , or less than ane thousandth the size of a grain of salt. The quantities involved are then tiny (330 parts per ane one k thousand of silvery in addition to twoscore parts per ane one k thousand of gold) , that researchers speculate that the drinking glass powerfulness convey been accidentally contaminated yesteryear gilded in addition to silvery dust , in addition to that glass-makers may non fifty-fifty convey known that these particles were involved. Yet , the regain of other drinking glass pieces amongst the exact same composition shows that the mixture was deliberately fabricated. Somehow , the ancient Roman glassmakers had figured out that when low-cal hits drinking glass embedded amongst the tiniest particles of gilded in addition to silvery , it alters the color of the glass. Modern scientific discipline has a lift for this number —dichroism , in addition to the drinking glass that exhibits this phenomenon are known every bit dichroic glass.
But that’s non the goal of the story. Simply adding ground-up gilded in addition to silvery to drinking glass would non create these unique optical properties. For that the gilded in addition to silvery particles ask to shape infinitesimal submicroscopic crystals or colloids. It is these colloids that laissez passer ascension to the low-cal scattering phenomena that resultant inward dichroic effects.
Photo credit: The History Blog
The add-on of metals or metallic oxides to color drinking glass was non unfamiliar to Roman glassmakers. For event , opaque reddish in addition to chocolate-brown spectacles were produced yesteryear the add-on of copper. However , coloring spectacles using gilded in addition to silvery was far from routine in addition to something of a hitting in addition to immature lady affair. There were a large number of factors to command including the concentration of the metals in addition to the particle size , oxidation states of for certain elements , the fourth dimension in addition to temperature of heating in addition to belike the atmosphere during heating. It is unlikely that the Romans were able to figure this all out exactly 1 ,600 years agone when engineering scientific discipline was real restricted.
The inability to command the coloring procedure explains why the engineering scientific discipline never developed beyond the quaternary century AD. Among the few slice of spectacles they were able to create , Lycurgus Cup is ane outstanding event in addition to is amidst the most technically sophisticated drinking glass objects produced earlier the modern era.
There are a few other examples of nanotechnology inward ancient history. The Maya people produced a corrosion resistant azure paint known every bit Maya Blue inward 800 AD , that was discovered to comprise clay amongst nanopores into which indigo dye was combined chemically to create an environmentally-stable pigment. Damascus steel swords , known for their impressive forcefulness , shatter resistance in addition to exceptionally abrupt cutting border , comprise nanoscale wire-and-tube-like structures. These swords were produced inward the Middle East betwixt the tertiary in addition to 17th century.
The presence of nanoparticles inward these materials , nevertheless , doesn’t hateful that the ancient people knew most nanotechnology.
Ian Freestone at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London , who studied the Lycurgus loving cup , thinks that these ancient craftsmen “were highly skilled only they were non nanotechnologists.”. “They did non know that they were working on the nanoscale ," he says.
Photo credit: The History Blog
Photo credit: The History Blog
Photo credit: Lucas/Flickr
Photo credit: The History Blog
A drinking glass blank made at the Corning Glassworks every bit a replica of the blank for the Lycurgus Cup.
Sources: Phys.org / Wikipedia / Smithsonian / Ian Freestone , Nigel Meeks , et al / Guardian