18th-Century Bone Telescopes Discovered in Amsterdam

Since ATS doesn't have an Archeology forum, I guess this is this best place for this discovery. Five beautiful telescopes from the 18th century have been discovered in Amsterdam, 2 were found in a "toilet".

www.livescience.com...

Five telescopes made of bone and dating to the 18th century have been discovered in Amsterdam, with two of the scopes found in the equivalent of toilets.

At the time, called the Enlightenment, the telescopes would have been considered luxury items and were likely used to gaze at objects on land or sea, rather than to look at the stars. They were created during a period when Amsterdam was a flourishing center for trade, one that attracted talented craftsmen.

Ranging in length from roughly 3 to 5 inches (80 to 140 millimeters), the telescopes were made using cattle metatarsal bone. "This particular bone of cow, the metatarsal bone, is actually quite straight and round," Marloes Rijkelijkhuizen, of the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre at the University of Amsterdam, told LiveScience."It's a nice shape to make these telescopes from, it's straight and (has a) very round narrow cavity."

This is a pretty neat discovery. I do wonder how and why these fantastic telescopes ended up in this cesspool. You would think that something like these telescopes would be prized possessions in the 18th century, but thankfully they were very well preserved due to the environment that they were found in.

I'm always fascinated by objects from the past, and it's great to find items like this is great condition.

Good old handwork.

My parents got a big clock from the 18 century since I was born, still ticking every day.
Something like this:


________________________

Funny it's found on a toilet.
I thought a telescope from the 18th century would look more modern?

Like for example this link:
Link to 18 century telescopes
You can even buy them today.

The old part of my town where I live is basicly still 18 century

That is awesome. It lookes like wood-grain to me but i dont have good eyes. Excellent post as i have not seen one before. I would still imagine that one possessing this would still use it to look at stars instead of just land and sea. I know i would.

reply to post by isyeye


How they find their way to toilet? Too curious of a neighbor perhaps ... ?

reply to post by isyeye


falling out of pockets while the outhouses were in use would be my guess?

Interesting. Maybe they were abandoned there after being hidden or something? Probably valuable at the time and well, I guess the toilet's a good hiding place as any.

wow very cool i want one