title: A Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age!) Spanish artificial eye: please realize this technology is circa 7000-years-old!
abstract: In 2008, the author presented a paper at the Cogan Society which addressed an amazing ancient artificial eye recently found in Iran. That artificial eye is about 5000-years-old. A kind reader of some of JME's writings [who lives in Spain] noted this report, and called his attention to yet another artificial eye of a similar sort, but it was 2000 years older! It is dated ca. 7000 years BP [before the present] during the Mesolithic Time Period, i.e., the Middle Stone Age(!), and was unearthed in modern Spain. This artificial eye was found in situ in the right orbit of the scull of a man who died at 40-45 years of age. The man was tall, and was apparently relatively well-to-do (JME assumes this is based upon items found in the grave). The artificial eye was made of ocher (or ochre). In the artificial eye, an incised cornea (and possibly a pupil) can be identified. This prosthesis may have been inserted backwards into the orbit at the time of burial. This artificial eye was much more primitive in both shape and design than the later one discovered at "The Bumt City" in Eastern Iran. The man's body (containing the artificial eye) was found at an archaeological site in Spain called Cingle del Mas Nou i Cava Fosca, Ares del Maestro, Castellón Province. This particular body was exhumed at Cingle del Mas Nou by Profa. Dr. Carme Olària Puyoles and her team.
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-2020, USA. jmenoch@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Jay M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Enoch
mesh_terms: D005137:Eye, Artificial / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D010164:Paleopathology; D013030:Spain; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000266:history