Viking Lenses 1000 years ago

Objects such as the one pictured above, and others, were discovered in viking villages dating to the 11th or 12th century. They were originally assumed to be ornaments. It was not until Karl-Heinz Wilms recognized the objects for what they were when he saw them in a Munich Museum. It is assumed that the vikings did not actually produce them but were made in Eastern Europe.

These lenses were used for burning out wounds to prevent infection, light fires or as a magnifier for craftsmen. It is also believed that the lenses were made out of trial and error as the mathmatics needed to formulate the curvature of the lens had not yet been invented.

The image quality of these lenses have not been duplicated until the 1950's. It is possible that these ancient people possessed the technology to create these lenses for use in telescopes. The Australian Broadcasting Network Robert Temple and Mark Newbrook on the "ancient telescopes" theory.

While the media and scientific communities will not acknowledge the possibility that telescopes existed thousands of years ago, they are willing to admit they were invented prior to the 16th century and that knowledge was lost. Is it that much more difficult to admit that the knowledge may have been aquired thousands of years ago?