A device so complicated that “if it had not been discovered in 1901, no-one would have believed it possible” — this is the finding of a (relatively) new study of the famous Antikythera mechanism, dating from 150 BC.
Found by chance by sponge divers in the wreck of a Roman vessel off the Greek island of Antikythera, it was at first presumed to be the inner workings of a sophisticated clock or similar device.
It was only in 2008 that a full understanding was gained of exactly how advanced the Antikythera mechanism is. The discovery was made after “it was photographed using a technique that exposed the surfaces to varying lighting patterns. This created different levels of contrast that allowed the researchers to read far more of the inscribed Greek text than was previously possible.
“Then, x-ray imaging was used to create full 3-D computer models of the mechanism, which revealed for the first time some of the more complex and detailed gear interactions. The Greek National Archaeological Museum’s discovery of some boxes filled with 82 additional mechanism fragments added new information as well.”
The results, published by Nature magazine, revealed that devices with this complexity “were not seen again for almost 1,500 years.”
The Antikythera mechanism was operated by turning a handle, and by using a staggeringly complex system of gears and dials, can predict the month, day and hour of an eclipse and even account for leap years.
It can also predict the positions of the sun and moon against the zodiac, and has a gear train that turns a black and white stone to show the moon’s phase on a given date.
It could also show the astronomical positions of the planets known at the time, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A special gear also allowed for the (for that time) unexplained variances in the moon’s orbit of the earth. The moon has an elliptical orbit, a fact not known at the time, and thus its appearance did not perfectly match what was presumed to be a spherical orbit.
Without having any interplanetary movement knowledge, the Antikythera mechanism made allowance for the moon’s variances by slowing or speeding up its calculations on that planet’s movements.
Another dial gave the days of the Olympic Games and other events.
Scientific American has a two-part video about the mechanism and the imaging techniques used in the research. Here they are, followed by a third video showing some clever guy who has managed to rebuild a working model….
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Ok…..now tell us the material it was made of and I’ll tell you that it is not of this planet. Look at the gear teeth on the thing for Christ sakes. It’s an artifact no doubt, but I think you all got the time period wrong along with actual beings that made it and lets not even go into how it served their purposes.
You know I thought about that but who knows. Emperical evidence would be required empeirically thinking.