archaeology and evolution

It turns out that I can access them, as long as I do it from a university computer. Presumably, our campus library has a subscription to the journal that includes internet access from campus.The paper indicated that the lenses pictured were concave, so could not be used as magnifiers. That would also make them unsuitable for telescopes. The authors believe that they were used as ear ornaments, and valued as art objects.

Good point. I did not read it carefully enough on the first read.Yes, the paper mentions several lenses, and some of the pictured lenses are plano-convex, so can be used for magnification.The pictured lenses appear to be from crystals, but the paper also mentions glass lenses that might have been used as magnifying glasses or for igniting fires.A telescope requires two lenses, one of them with a long focal length, and careful alignment of those lenses. And part of what makes a telescope work is not just the magnification, but the larger amount of light picked up and the greater resolving power dues to a large diameter objective lens.For evidence of early telescopes, I would want to see evidence of a largish diameter lens and evidence of the apparatus that held the lenses in a suitable alignment.