It seems that the coins could have been worked using water as a
source of magnification. Would the wait time between ripples have
been frustrating? Probably but I hear that many of those ancient
craftspeople were pretty patient.
Joe
Don’t sell those ancients short – I truely think there was a great
deal of “scientific” and “technical” knowledge that has been lost
over the years. I worked on an archaeological dig at Caesarea, most
of which was underwater. It is a port that was contstructed
–underwater-- by Herod. And that is the most interesting part.
At this particular site on the Mediterranean, there are no naturally
occuring underwater strutctures which make ports what they are – so
the Romans made some. They floated large (football field sized)
caissons into the water and filled them with what is called hydraulic
cement. Then they sunk them – in very precise alignment – thus
creating structures underwater that Nature did not, and giving the
Romans the most direct route to the salt that they wanted. At the
time that I worked on this dig – we (meaning our engineers here in
the U.S.) were trying to figure out how they made that stuff and then
how they sunk those caissons so precisely. . . I am always in awe of
what I learn of history – just an aside to the conversation
Laura Wiesler P.S. I bought a first century coin while I was there
and it is one of my most prized posessions – a constant reminder of
the richness of that experience!!