Telescope unearthed at Delft train station construction

“It wasn’t until we began the initial process of cleaning the supposed shell casing a couple of months ago that we noticed two small glass lenses and realised what an historical find we had made,” recounts Delft city archaeologist Steven Jongma who works with Archeologie Delft. They had discovered the oldest telescope in the Netherlands and the only one of its kind known to be in existence. The telescope was found in the former city moat in the north western corner of what used to be the old city of delft during the construction of the new underground train line.

Archeologie Delft then began working with experts at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden, which specialises in science history. The Boerhaave’s team of experts was able to help analyse the find and ultimately date it to approximately 1520. That makes the telescope the oldest in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in the world. “Because of a lack of a date stamp on the telescope we can never be sure of the exact date it was made. For that reason we can never prove that it is quite possibly the oldest in the world,” says Jongma.

Given the copper appearance of the outer surface of the telescope in spite of being made of tinplate, Archeologie Delft believes there is still further analysis required. To gain the expertise needed they will be working with TU Delft scientists to perform chemical composition analyses.

The telescope will be on display as part of the permanent collection at the newly renovated Prinsenhof Museum in Delft. Whilst the museum will be officially reopened by King Willem Alexander on May 23 2014, the telescope will be available for public viewings from May 24 2014. While the telescope is still functioning, it unfortunately cannot be used by museum patrons.

However, don’t ask who found it. Jongma adds: “We found it over a year ago but didn’t realise what we had found. Because of the unusual way the discovery was made nobody can remember who actually found the telescope.”