In the modern day, mirrors are just about everywhere. But that wasn't always the case, and the mirror actually has a surprisingly long history.

Researchers have determined that an obsidian mirror believed to have been owned by the sixteenth-century English polymath John Dee originated in the Aztec world. Dee served as a scientific adviser ...

Some of the earliest human-made mirrors, fashioned from polished obsidian, date to 6200 B.C. in Turkey. Egyptians later made mirrors of polished copper, and Chinese inventors from reflective jade.