A fragment of the Antikythera Mechanism has been found!

In the waters of the Aegean Sea, one of the missing fragments of the legendary Antikythera Mechanism has probably been found! This is what media around the world are reporting, citing Israeli sources. If the information is confirmed, it will be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of recent years.

The bronze disc was found by archaeologists, during the exploration of the same wreck that, in addition to a huge number of real cultural treasures, brought back to the world the first analogue computer. Extremely complex and technologically advanced, more than 2200 years old, the Mechanism of Antikythera.

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Investigations ashore – including X-rays – revealed that the object excavated from the wreck is in fact an inlaid pinwheel bearing an image of a bull.

In 1901, while diving on an ancient shipwreck near the Aegean island of Antikythera, divers found fragments of a bronze construction among many ancient relics. The discovery was initially disregarded, taking it to be the remains of a destroyed sculpture.

In 1902, visible fragments of a mechanism were discovered in one of the lumps, and it was considered to be a complicated clock. As it was believed at the time that such complicated mechanisms were not manufactured in ancient times, the discovery was classified by some researchers as dating from the 15th century or later, and the presence on the ancient wreck was explained as a “strange coincidence”.

The person who first started a thorough investigation of the strange find was Derek Price from Yale University. He made, among other things, an X-ray of the fragments found. Fascinated by the uniqueness of the find, in effect, he devoted most of his life to trying to solve the mystery of the “mysterious clock”.

This resulted in a scientific paper summarising 20 years of research (1974), in which he concluded that the device consisted of 31 gears and was used to determine the position of the Sun and the Moon. He also made a replica of the mechanism (imperfect and not error-free), but the results of his research were rejected by most of the scientific world, as it was claimed to be an unrealistic achievement for an ancient science.

But is it any wonder that the truth about an object that spent more than 2000 years in the waters of the Aegean Sea is so hard to accept? Since it was only possible to make similar constructions 1500 years later!

Fortunately, Pric’s work was enough for subsequent researchers to take an interest in the subject, and as technology progressed and developed, they rediscovered the design and significance of the mysterious device.

In 2006, the journal ‘Nature’ published the results of the study and a three-dimensional image of the fragments studied, taken using a CT scanner by a research team led by Mike G. Edmunds, from Cardiff University. In addition to its purpose and function, it was possible to establish that the whole consisted of 37 gears, all the inscriptions covering the mechanism were also read, and through analysis of the writing the age of the object was determined to be around the 2nd century BC.

As it turned out, the Mechanism from Antikythera was a complex astronomical device, and with its help it was possible to predict the movement of the Sun and the Moon against the background of the Zodiac, as well as the Egyptian calendar used by the ancient Greeks at that time. The ancient computer also showed the phases of the Moon and allowed predictions of solar and lunar eclipses. On the basis of the research material gathered, it is also assumed that this amazing device was able to track the movement of the 5 planets known at the time.

As for the origin of the Antikythera Mechanism, it is presumed that it was created on the island of Rhodes, which gathered the cream of astrologers of the time. One theory is that it may have been constructed by Hipparchus, whose ideas were applied in the construction of the device.

This discovery forced the scientific world to verify our knowledge of the technical capabilities of the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, the achievements of a civilisation that loved science above all else were lost over the centuries. This was mainly due to the Roman Empire, which only recognised technological advances in the military arts.

To give you an idea of the uniqueness, precision and possibilities of this amazing construction, let me just add that another device of similar complexity was made in 1704…

Source: haaretz.com, wikipedia.org

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