Antikythera Mechanism: The Miracle Machine and the Planetary Run

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A more than 2000 year old mechanical calculating machine - the "Mechanism of Antikythera" - could not only predict the course of the sun and moon, but also the movements of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which were known in antiquity.

This is what a research team from Great Britain and Cyprus reports in the journal "Scientific Reports".

The scientists succeeded for the first time in developing a complete model of the mechanism, which, based on the astronomical knowledge known in antiquity, fulfills all the functions described by engraved inscriptions.

It was an archaeological chance find: in 1900, sponge divers came across a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, located between the Peloponnese and Crete.

On the basis of coin finds, the ship's sinking could be dated to the period between 70 and 60 BC.

Among the numerous objects that have been recovered from the wreck by divers over time, there was a heavily corroded lump of brass embedded in the remains of a wooden box, as well as numerous fragments apparently belonging to it.

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Initial investigations in the following years indicate that the brass lump is the remains of a surprisingly complex fine mechanical apparatus - a kind of ancient calculating machine.

In the 1950s, x-ray examinations inside the brass lump showed gears and mechanical components, as well as numerous engraved inscriptions.

And it turns out that the mechanism is even older: it apparently dates back to the late 2nd century BC.

The mechanism of the model in parts

Source: Tony Freeth

Fragments of the actual find from 1900

Source: Hewlett-Packard

The “Antikythera Mechanism” finally became an archaeological sensation: the device has a level of precision engineering that neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans would have expected - and which was only achieved again in Europe a millennium and a half later.

It's like "discovering a jet in Tutankhamun's grave," enthused the British historian of science Derek de Solla Price.

But how exactly did the adding machine work - and what could it show?

There have not yet been any complete answers to these questions.

Many researchers only saw the mechanism as a kind of astronomical clock to simulate the movement of the sun and moon, which was used, among other things, to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

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However, other scientists were convinced that the mechanism was a kind of analog "cosmic computer" that could even correctly reproduce the apparent movement of planets known in antiquity in the sky.

Because the labels on the mechanism contained information about these planets.

The researchers' problem: a large part of the calculating machine had been lost - only about a third survived the shipwreck and the millennia on the ocean floor.

Scientists therefore had to try to reconstruct the entire apparatus from this third and the inscriptions it contained.

Tony Freeth from University College London and his colleagues have evidently been successful in this - whereby they incorporated the well-known astronomical knowledge of antiquity into the interpretation of the inscriptions.

The starting point of the analysis was X-ray images taken in 2005, which show further inscriptions on the back of the mechanism.

In addition, the researchers were helped by two numbers on the front: 462 and 442. Freeth and his colleagues found that these numbers could be used to represent the movement of the planets Venus and Saturn relative to Earth with the aid of gears.

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On the basis of this finding, the researchers finally succeeded in reconstructing a complete model of the Antikythera mechanism.

And to show that it actually reproduces the movement not only of the sun and moon, but also of the five planets known in antiquity with high accuracy.

Archaeologists discover ancient takeaways in Pompeii

During excavations in a part of Pompeii that was previously closed to visitors, archaeologists have found a completely preserved antique snack bar.

The leftovers that were also discovered are a foretaste of modern Mediterranean cuisine.

Source: WORLD / Kevin Knauer

The researchers write that it is the work of a genius: "It combines the cycles of Babylonian astronomy, the mathematics of Plato's Academy and the astronomical theories of the ancient Greeks." the artisanal process known in antiquity.