Antikythera mechanism: Ancient celestial calculator

A picture taken at the Archaeological Museum in Athens on September 14, 2014 shows a piece of the Antikythera Mechanism, a second-century B.C. device known as the world’s oldest computer which tracked astronomical phenomena and the cycles of the solar system.(Image credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient shoebox-sized device that is sometimes called the world’s oldest computer for its ability to perform astronomical calculations. Discovered by sponge divers off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, the remains of the mechanism are now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Only 82 fragments, consisting of about one-third of the original mechanism, survive today, It was built around 2,200 years ago.

The mechanism was capable of performing different calculations, and it could help track the motions of the sun, moon and five of the planets; it could even tell when athletic competitions, such as the Olympics, were set to take place, the researchers wrote. Since the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism, scholars have been trying to understand the device. And although they have made considerable progress, many questions remain unanswered. For example, researchers still aren’t sure who made it. The inscriptions on the mechanism are written in Greek.

*An engraving illustration of the last hour of Archimedes, the mathematician who died in 212 B.C. or 211 B.C. when the Romans captured Syracuse, Sicily. (Image credit: mikroman6 via Getty Images)*

The recovered fragments of the mechanism contained writing and inscriptions, and over the past two decades, scientists have been able to read more of these Greek inscriptions using high-tech imaging methods, such as 3D X-ray scanning. This has enabled them to learn more about how the mechanism worked.

CT scans “revealed inscriptions describing the motions of the sun, moon and all five planets known in antiquity and how they were displayed at the front as an ancient Greek cosmos.” The mechanism used “cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories.”

*More pieces of the Antikythera Mechanism at the Archaeological Museum in Athens.(Image credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)*

Between the front and back of the mechanism were a vast array of gears, designed in such a way that all the dials would depict the correct timing of all the cycles. “Suppose a user of the Antikythera Mechanism wants to check eclipse predictions for a particular month some years ahead. The user winds the mechanism forwards to the desired date, as shown on one of its calendars,” Tony Freeth, a researcher with the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, wrote in a paper published in 2014 in the journal “PLOS One.”

Though the ship that held the Antikythera mechanism was discovered more than a century ago, the wreck has not been fully excavated. Its location and depth make it hard to excavate. Despite these difficulties a new program of excavation is being carried out by a team of archaeologists and new artifacts continue to be found, shedding light on what the ship, which likely sank around 65 B.C. was like.

*Marine archeologists also found a bronze arm from a sculpture in the same shipwreck. Credit: Greek Ministry of Culture*

Researchers have noted that many of the artifacts were luxury goods intended for the wealthy. So far, the recent excavations have not uncovered any new remains of the mechanism.

*Excavations in 2016 at the Antikythera shipwreck found a nearly intact skull, including the cranial parietal bones. (Image credit: Brett Seymour, EUA/WHOI/ARGO)*

Antikythera Mechanism rewrote the history of science

In 2015, Kyriakos Efstathiou, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki said: “All of our research has shown that our ancestors used their deep knowledge of astronomy and technology to construct such mechanisms, and based only on this conclusion, the history of technology should be re-written because it sets its start many centuries back.”

In 2016, yet another astounding discovery was made when an inscription on the device was revealed—something like a label or a user’s manual for the device. It included a discussion of the colors of eclipses, details used at the time in the making of astrological predictions, including the ability to see exact times of eclipses of the moon and the sun, as well as the correct movements of celestial bodies.

*A model of the Antikythera Mechanism was made by Derek De Solla Price. Credit: Public Domain*

Inscribed numbers 76, 19 and 223 show maker “was a Pythagorean”

On one side of the device lies a handle that begins the movement of the whole system. By turning the handle and rotating the gauges in the front and rear of the mechanism, the user could set a date that would reveal the astronomical phenomena that would potentially occur around the Earth. Physicist Yiannis Bitsakis has said that today the NASA website can detail all the eclipses of the past and those that are to occur in the future. However, “what we do with computers today, was done with the Antikythera Mechanism about 2000 years ago,” he said.

Making this incredible machine even more impressive is the fact that the movements of the planets are directly linked to specific observation sites around the known world at the time, suggesting that the creator of the Antikythera Mechanism had provided for the use of the machine in more than one location.

Bones found at the Antikythera Mechanism shipwreck site

Greece’s Ministry of Culture issued a statement in late 2019 informing the public that ”bones were collected, which now need to be analyzed, (as well as) olive kernels, and bronze nails from the ship as well as a bronze ring, whose use remains unknown.”

Among the findings which were discovered were sections of the bodies of ancient amphorae, as well as the bases and the necks from the main bodies of the vases. The types of amphorae are identified as those which were typically used on the island of Kos and in Southern Italy in ancient times.

The Greek Ministry noted ”this scientific mission of October 2019 completed the first five-year research program. Based on the results of the latest research, preparations for the new five-year program, starting in May 2020, will begin immediately with the continuation of excavation research in various areas of the wreck, where there are good indications that impressive new findings will come to light.”

“The mission was concluded with great success despite adverse weather conditions and the limited length of time for the rescue research,” the Ministry added.

A video titled “2017 Return to Antikythera Expedition” looks at the delicate and often hazardous work marine archeologists do in recovering ancient gems from the depth of the seas. That expedition, led by the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Lund University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was conducted between September 4th to September 20th of that year, and as per previous trips to the wreck, the team did not leave disappointed.

With excellent weather conditions above them, the divers managed to recover an “orphaned” right arm of a bronze statue, pottery shards, nails, lead sheathing fragments, and an odd metal disc, among other artifacts. Prior to that expedition, the Return to Antikythera project team managed to recover glassware, luxury ceramics, anchors, counterweights, tools, and even an ancient skeleton, which is still undergoing DNA analysis.