M.J. Rose

The Antikythera device has been an incredible mystery that has boggled people for a very long time –

Now, the next question is, what other advanced technologies existed hundreds or thousands of years before they were supposed to according to traditional history? My personal theory is that advanced human civilization has existed a lot longer than anyone supposes.

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved

Ian Sample, science correspondent

The Guardian

A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck

has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of

how the sophisticated device works.

The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it

sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera.

By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered

the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the

recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel

embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the

stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials,

clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek

inscriptions.

Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the

device, which is now known to be an astronomical calendar capable of

tracking with remarkable precision the position of the sun, several

heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon. Experts believe it to be

the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most

sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval

periods.

Using modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface

scanning, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff

University peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and

read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of

the machine. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back

to 150-100 BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the

movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses

and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known

as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus

of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the

machine’s construction, the scientists speculate.

Remarkably, scans showed the device uses a differential gear, which

was previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century…

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