Parts of a mysterious mechanism the size of a shoe box were discovered in 1902 in the wreck of a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. It is a device showing the motion of cosmic bodies, which has since amazed generations of scientists.
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Nothing like this has ever been found. It’s like another world
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The components found make up an estimated third of a larger device: a highly sophisticated hand-powered gear capable of accurately predicting the motion of the Sun, Moon, and the five planets known to the ancient Greeks. In addition, it was able to determine solar and lunar eclipses, as well as lunar phases.
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It depicted all phenomena due to important events of antiquity, such as the Olympic Games.
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The incredible technological capabilities of the ancient Greeks
Despite thorough research and discussion, scientists have not been able to fully reconstruct the mechanism of the device due to the advanced corrosion of the brass components found. Nor did they come to terms with the calculations on the basis of which the device was created.
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Only now have researchers from University College London (UCL) announced that they have fully refurbished the mechanism – in digital form. They are currently creating their own device.
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“Our work reveals the mechanism of Antikythera as a wonderful idea translated into stunning genius by stunning engineering,” the researchers wrote in an article in Scientific Reports. “It questions all our current ideas about the technological capabilities of the ancient Greeks,” they added.
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“The gap between the complexity of this device and other devices currently being manufactured is endless,” study co-author Adam Wojcik of UCL told Live Science. “Frankly, nothing like this has ever been found. It’s like another world, “he said.
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Unusually small and sophisticated – did it work at all?
All other discovered devices from this period – ballistae (machines throwing stone projectiles), large crossbows or catapults – are much larger. The sophistication of the mechanism also raises questions about manufacturing processes. It is also not clear why it has only been found in one specimen so far.
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“What was he doing on that ship? We found only a third – where are the other two? Have they disappeared from corrosion? Did it ever work? ” Wojcik asks.
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Mechanism from Antikythera in the Archaeological Museum of Athens
Photo: ZUMA / Aristidis Vafeiadakis, KTK
“These are questions that we can only really answer through experimental archeology. It’s like finding out how they built Stonehenge: let’s take 200 people, a rope and a big stone and try to move it across the Salisbury Plain. We’re trying to do something similar here, “he explained.
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The work of Archimedes?
Using modern technology, UCL scientists now first create a physical model to verify that their device is working. Later, they will try to construct it using production methods from antiquity.
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Researchers at UCL have solved a major piece of the puzzle that makes up the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism. ☀️????????
Find out how the world’s first analog computer was meticulously recreated: https://t.co/WAIf4mgvYb
???? UCL. pic.twitter.com/xn1gvt2anO
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) March 16, 2021
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“There is a great deal of debate about who the work was created for and who the author is. Many people say it was Archimedes. He lived at about the same time it was created, and no one else had the same level of technical skills as he did. It was also a Roman wreck, “Wojcik concluded, adding that Archimedes had been killed by the Romans during the siege of Syracuse after the weapons he had invented did not prevent the conquest of the city.
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Archimedes was an important, perhaps the most important ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, philosopher, inventor and astronomer. He lived in the 3rd century BC
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