HEY, GOOD LOOKING

PREHISTORY

Although eyewear is a reasonably modern invention, the earliest evidence of prehistoric styles comes from the Inuit people, who shielded their eyes from snow glare by cutting a slit through a piece of bone, typically walrus, worn across their eyes.

ANTIQUITY

Rather elaborately, Roman emperor Nero is said to have watched gladiator competitions through a large emerald, well before green-tinted lenses became all the rage in 18th-century London. Ancient Romans studied eyesight and knew how to amplify objects through water, but had not yet invented magnifying lenses.

1000s

Arab mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham pioneered, that drastically transformed the world’s understanding of light and vision before spectacles were invented.