Lycurgus Cup Essay

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Another example of a substantial construction is the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis. It is as well the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient Wolds that has stayed intact over the years. The Great Pyramids at Gizeh lies exactly in the center of the world. A puzzling question among scientists, is how was these pyramids built in the past? Scientist have repeatedly stated that our technology has progressively advanced throughout the years. However, alternative scientist challenge that statement by asking, what if the technology back then was more advance than todays’ technology? The pyramid is estimated to have 2,300,000 stones and these stones weight from 2 to 50 tons each. (Petricevic …show more content…

It is estimated to be from the 4th century. The incredible artifact is on show at the British Museum and is prized for its detailed artwork, which is a scene from a Roman myth involving King Lycurgus of Thrace being trapped by vines. Lycurgus Cup is a glass chalice made out of dichroic glass, a glass that displays two different colors by changing colors based off the lighting condition. The glass cup appears jade green when lit from the front, but when lit from behind, it displays blood-red. The mystery of the changing colors puzzled scientist for decades. It wasn’t until 1950 when the mystery was solved by a group of researchers in England. They examined the Romans, “impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing” (Merali 2003). The precision and great detail of the artifact lead alternative scientists to title the Romans as nanotechnology pioneers. Yet, mainstream scientist tries to ignore these claims and states that Romans had accidentally stumbled on discovering nanotechnology. Although, even today, modern scientist have difficulty in reproducing the technology used within the Lycurgus

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