The Lycurgus Cup is a 4th-century “out of place” Roman glass cup. Known as a cage cup, it was indeed a style popular at the time. However, the Lycurgus cup is unique in many ways…

Made by a mysterious, and as yet, not entirely understood a process, which resulted in a phenomenon known as “dichroic glass,” a form of glass which can change color depending on which angle light passes through its structure. The cup’s glass appears red when lit from behind, and green when lit from in front… An astonishing achievement within glass making, one which it seems, has never been replicated?

The Lycurgus cup is the only ancient, manufactured artifact in existence that displays this unusual characteristic. Under scientific analysis, it was found that the dichroic feature of the glass was no accident. The effect was achieved by somehow adding “nano-portions” of gold and silver, dispersed in colloidal form throughout the molten glass. The exact process undertaken remains unclear, yet the perfection achieved within the process is clear for all to see.

However, academia has attempted to claim that the cup’s miraculous characteristics are a mere accident – a freak result of experimentation – and adding that it was probably created by accident, by “contamination” of minutely ground gold and silver dust.

“The glass-makers may not even have known that gold was involved, as the quantities involved are so tiny; they may have come from a small proportion of gold in any silver added (most Roman silver contains small proportions of gold), or from traces of gold or gold leaf left by accident in the workshop from other work.”

The cup is the “only well-preserved figural example” of a cage cup. Where did the Lycurgus cup come from?

Who could have possibly made it? Who possessed the skills to create such a magnificent glass more than 1600 years ago?