Although the Draconae would not say much about it, Istredd could learn that the artifact is roughly dated to the year 3,000 and is a broken piece of a larger whole. Based on this, he could piece together a few conclusions.

For instance, he would be aware that this is when Thorne's first settlement near Lake Circinus was established. The Singularity happens to be somewhat close to Lake Circinus, so Thorne appears to have cause to believe that it's linked to the Singularity in some form. Whether it truly belongs to them is in question.