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The
Antikythera Mechanism
In the early part of 1900 just
before the Christian Easter holiday, a small sponge diving boat was
caught in a severe Mediterranean squall off the coast of Greece. Seeking
the safety of calmer waters the captain navigated his craft to
Antikythera, an island between the Greek mainland and Crete.
 Once on the
leeward side of the island the weather had calmed, and they found
themselves in gentler seas. The boat was riding in nearly 200 feet of
water so the captain thought this would be a prime spot to deep dive for
sponges to make up for time and profits lost in moving out of the storm.
At the captains order a young diver suited up in his hardhat helmet and
heavy weighted boots and was lowered into the sea. After just a few
minutes of exploration on the bottom the diver began to panic and
started signaling frantically to come up. Due to the depth of the dive
and to avoid nitrogen narcosis, it would be a slow rise to the surface,
so the captain asked another diver to suit up and be ready to go back
down to harvest valuable sponges. When the first diver finally broke
surface he was visibly shaken and excitedly relayed that the sea floor
was littered with corpses.
Prepared for the gruesome sight, the other diver stepped into the sling
for the descent. Once on the sea floor the diver moved directly toward
the spot reported by the first diver. As he moved closer, and to his
amazement, the sea floor was littered not with bodies as reported but
with art treasures. Before him scattered in the sand and undersea plants
lay some of the most finely crafted marble and bronze statues he had
ever seen.
Moving further into the artistic debris field, he then discovered the
remains of an ancient ship wreck. It was indeed a bountiful day for the
crew. Of course even in their attempts to keep it quiet, over time word
circulated about their find and others soon joined in on the treasure
retrieval. Over the next few years divers retrieved numerous statues and
other valuable artifacts from the wreck site. Through the abundant
archaeological evidence collected, the ship wreck was determined to be
over 2,000 years old, dating back to approximately 80 B.C. The ship was
an amazing treasure trove.
Then on May 17th 1902 in 138 feet of water, a diver brought up a crusty
lump of what appeared to be a curious looking rock that he had pried
from underneath a section of the ship wreck. After a cursory
examination, archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed something peculiar
embedded in the rock, something that appeared to be man made. The rock
proved not to be stone at all but a heavily encrusted and corroded
mechanism with clearly visible gears and plates. The diver subsequently
brought up two more large pieces and dozens of smaller fragments.
What had been discovered at Antikythera was something quite
extraordinary. An ancient and beautifully designed mechanism made of
bronze that was once mounted in a wooden frame or case. The mechanism
was surprisingly thin and consisted of many intricate gears. While the
case and faces of the instrument were crushed by the weight of the wreck
and much of the device was preserved through the heavy calcareous
encrustation.
The challenge for archaeologists and other scientists was that the
encrustations prevented them from fully examining the device. The ship
itself was of Roman origin, but the strange mechanism was (with
certainty) determined to have been made in Greece. One popular
hypothesis is that the Antikythera mechanism was constructed at an
ancient Greek academy founded by the Stoic philosopher Posidonius on the
island of Rhodes. In that time period Rhodes was known as the center of
astronomy and mechanical engineering. Through additional research, the
scientists theorized that the ill fated Roman ship was carrying the
device and other treasures which had been looted from the island, back
to Rome.
 Fast
forward to 1971 when modern gamma ray technology was used to look inside
the encrusted metal mass. Once again, some very startling information
was revealed. The Antikythera Mechanism consisted of more than 30
precision made gears (some scientists suggest that the complete
mechanism originally had over 70 gears.) The precision construction,
level of miniaturization, and complexity are incredible even by today’s
standards. It is also inscribed with more than 2,000 legible characters,
many of which have been deciphered, providing additional clues to the
mechanisms use.
The Antikythera Mechanism’s primary purpose proved to be quite
remarkable and startling to modern science. The device is a 2,100 year
old analog astrological computer capable of accurately calculating the
positions of the sun, the moon, the stars and other planets. Depending
on the dates entered into the mechanism it is capable of calculating
astrological information for the past, the present, or the future. It is
apparent that dates were entered into the Antikythera Mechanism by using
a lever or dial that is unfortunately now missing from the device.
The Antikythera Mechanism is a remarkably precise and accurate
computational device even by today’s advanced technology standards.
Science is still conducting extensive research and theoretical
speculation on this device in hopes of further discovering its exact
purpose and quite possibly its ancient inventor.
The Antikythera Mechanism is on display at the National Archaeological
Museum in Athens Greece. A replica is on display in the United States at
the American Computer Museum in Bozeman Montana.
by:
Dr. Von Zuko 2007©
The Antikythera Mechanism is not Windows Vista compliant : -)
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