The earliest prosthetic eye is nearly 5,000 years old! Found in a six-foot-tall female skeleton, interred in the Burnt City, an ancient city in southeastern Iran. Shaped like a half-sphere, it appears to be made of natural tar mixed with animal fat, covered in a thin layer of gold, and engraved with a circular iris with gold lines like sun rays inside. Not exactly a convincing fake. But it was not meant to deceive, we think, but glitter and catch the light.
Holes on both sides of the eye likely held the eyeball in place. And we know it was used, not just added after death: microscopic studies of the skeleton’s eye socket show the prosthetic eye was worn while the woman was alive.
You can see photos of the artificial eye here.
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