In the UESP page on saarthal, it says:
"In the late http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Second_Era, the ruins of the city were located by archaeologists near the modern city of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Winterhold."
This means that the ruins were first excavated almost seven hundred years ago. How did it take that long for people to find the eye?

