Antikythera Mechanism

Replica Statue of Antikythera mechanism. Handmade of alabaster,and painted in special corrosion patina.

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the first analogue computer. The oldest known example of such a device used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar and astrological purposes decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.

This artefact was retrieved from the sea in 1901,  from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists .IT has been  dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC..

The knowledge of this technology was lost at some point in antiquity.  Similar technological works later appeared in the medieval Byzantine and Islamic worlds.   But works with similar complexity did not appear again until the development of mechanical astronomical clocks in Europe in the fourteenth century. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are now kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.  Along with a number of artistic reconstructions and replicas of the mechanism to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked.

ORIGIN OF THE MECHANISM

The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known analogue computer. The quality and complexity of the mechanism’s manufacture suggests that it must have had undiscovered predecessors made during the Hellenistic period.  Its construction relied on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers .  It is estimated to have been built in the late second century BC or the early first century BC.

The ship carrying the device also contained vases in the Rhodian style.  That is leading to a hypothesis that it was constructed at an academy founded by Stoic philosopher Posidonius on that Greek island. Rhodes was a busy trading port in antiquity and a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering.  Home to astronomer Hipparchus, who was active from about 140 BC to 120 BC. The mechanism uses Hipparchus’ theory for the motion of the Moon.  That suggests the possibility that he may have designed it or at least worked on it.