Solving a mystery that has puzzled experts for centuries, scientists at the University of Sheffield in England have recreated the color-changing properties of the British Museum ’s storied 1,600-year-old Lycurgus Cup, which is green in typical lighting but turns red when lit from behind.

“To me, it’s magic,” Lisa Hollands, a technician who worked on project, told the Guardian . She added that “people have tried it before with limited success” and called the undertaking a “labor of love.”

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The Roman cup, which was named one of the seven glass wonders of the world by the organizing committee behind the UN-designated International Year of Glass in 2022, bears a design that alludes to King Lycurgus from the sixth book of Homer’s Iliad .…