The Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient Greek astronomical calculator, has challenged researchers since its discovery in 1901. Now split into 82 fragments, only a third of the original survives, including 30 corroded bronze gearwheels. Microfocus X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) in 2005 decoded the structure of the rear of the machine but the front remained largely unresolved. X-ray CT also 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. Inscriptions specifying complex planetary periods forced new thinking on the mechanization of this Cosmos, but no previous reconstruction has come close to matching the data. Our discoveries lead to a new model, satisfying and explaining the evidence. Solving this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius—combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories.
After studying the design geometry of the Antikythera Mechanism Saros spiral, new critical geometrical/mechanical characteristics of the Back plate design were detected. The geometrical characteristics related to the symmetry of the Antikythera Mechanism design, are independent to the present irregular deformation of the Mechanism parts and were used as calibration points for the Saros spiral cells positional measurements. The Saros cells numbering was recalculated using the calibration points position. A correction of minus one to the currently accepted numbering of the Saros cells was applied. Following the new numbering, a new proper position for the (displaced) Saros pointer axis-g, in graphic design environment was calculated. The measurements were tested on a bronze reconstruction of the Back plate, by the authors. This research leads to a new important result that the Saros does not start in a random or arbitrary date but only when a solar eclipse occurs within a month. Additional results were also calculated regarding the symmetry of the eclipse events/sequence. The new Saros cell numbering strongly affects the calculations for the initial starting date of the Saros spiral and the eclipse events scheme of the Antikythera Mechanism.
The Antikythera Mechanism, often described as »the world’s first computer«, is a unique mechanical device, part of the luxury cargo of a ship that sank near the island of Antikythera. From the moment it was identified as an astronomical device, in 1902, there were controversies among specialists about its nature and functions. During the last decades, a consensus reconstruction has been established which can help to answer other questions. Here, we do not discuss the question of its creator, nor the date and place of its creation, but focus on its use and users: was it an educational or demonstration tool? Could it have been used for astrological purposes? What benefits did it confer on its owner and user?
In Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and Its Demise, Evaggelos G. Vallianatos, historian and ecopolitical theorist, shows that after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, the Greeks, especially in Egypt, reached unprecedented heights of achievements in science, technology, and civilization. The Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical computer probably crafted in Rhodes in the second century BCE, was proof of that prowess. It's the grandfather of our computers.
Greek sponge divers discovered the Antikythera Mechanism in 1900 on a 2,100-year-old Roman-era shipwreck. The hand-powered device reveals a sophisticated Greek technology previously unknown to scholars and historians, not seen and understood again until the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book not only describes how the sophisticated political and technological infrastructure of the Greeks after Alexander the Great resulted in the Antikythera celestial computer, and the bedrock of science and technology we know today, but also how the influence of Christianity on Greek civilization destroyed the nascent computer age of ancient Greece. Vallianatos, born in Greece and educated in America, is a historian, author, and journalist. He is a passionate champion of Greek culture and a well-suited guide to this historical account. Vallianatos explains how and why Greek scientists employed advanced engineering in translating the beautiful conception of the Antikythera Mechanism into an astronomical computer of genius: a bronze-geared device of mathematical astronomy, predicting the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon; calculating the risings and settings of important stars and constellations, and the movements of the planets around the Sun; while mechanizing the predictions of scientific theories. The computer’s accurate calendar connected these cosmic phenomena to the Olympics and other major Panhellenic religious and athletic celebrations, bringing the Greeks closer to their gods, traditions, and the Cosmos.
This book is unlike any other. It tells the story behind the genius of the Antikythera Mechanism, including the decoding of its secrets in the last 120 years – and much more. It gives the ancient Greek historical context that makes sense of the computer, explaining its matchless genius. This book would be of great interest to discerning readers, especially those who love Greek civilization and are curious about the origins of science. It’s also full of insights for computer geeks, start-ups, computer company designers, and users.
A bold new interpretation, Antikythera Mechanism tells a riveting story of the Greeks’ greatest technological achievement, and how Christianity ended a potential computer age in ancient Greece.
The Antikythera Mechanism contains, among its many features, a movable calendar ring with three Egyptian month names engraved in ancient Greek.1 The calendar ring has been universally supposed, without validation, to be an unremarkable example of what is generally referred to as the ‘Egyptian civil calendar’ — a non-lunar calendar of precisely 365-day duration, comprised of twelve 30-day months, plus five epagomenal or ‘intercalary’ days.In this article we reconsider this feature, and provide new data to show this interpretation to be incorrect, and displace the century-long assumption of a 365-day calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism, proposing instead that it is a 354-day lunar calendar.
Attempts previous to 2014 to date the ancient Greek astronomical Antikythera Mechanism, on the basis of the letter forms of its inscriptions or on its Egyptian Calendar scale's alignment, were inconclusive. (Occasional claims that the Mechanism was not a product of antiquity at all are refuted in an appendix to this paper.) In 2014, two separate and complex arguments were published dating the series of computed lunar and solar eclipses inscribed on the Mechanism's Saros Dial to the interval 205-187 BCE, and in 2017 an argument was presented that the Corinthian Calendar lunisolar cycle and the Panhellenic Games cycle inscribed on the Metonic and Games Dials also had an epoch in 205 BCE, four months after the eclipse epoch. The present paper offers a more direct confirmation of the dating of the eclipse sequence, a reaffirmation of the calendrical epoch and explanation of it in the context of Hellenistic calendar regulation and synchronization, and a hypothetical reconstruction of the design decisions that determined the choice of the two 205 BCE epochs. These decisions could plausibly have been made by a designer as late as the c. 60 BCE archeologically determined date of the shipwreck from which the Mechanism was recovered.
This article analyzes the angular spacing of the degree marks on the zodiac scale of the Antikythera mechanism and demonstrates that over the entire preserved 88° of the zodiac, the marks are systematically placed too close together to be consistent with a uniform distribution over 360°. Thus, in some other part of the zodiac scale (not preserved), the degree marks have been spaced farther apart. By contrast, the day marks on the Egyptian calendar scale are spaced uniformly, apart from minor errors. A solar equation of center is apparent which rises by nearly 2.7° over the preserved portion of the zodiac. The placement of the degree marks indicates that, in the preserved portion of the zodiac, the Sun was considered to run at a uniform pace of about 30° per synodic month, which is consistent with the Sun’s speed in the fast zone of the Babylonian solar theory of System A.
In 1901, an extraordinary ancient Greek artefact was discovered in a shipwreck just off the tiny island of Antikythera. It was later shown to be a complex astronomical calculating machine and is now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. In 2005, it was established that it predicted eclipses, using a 7th century BC Babylonian eclipse cycle of 223 lunar months, known as the Saros Cycle. Understanding the complex eclipse prediction scheme on the Antikythera Mechanism has resulted from a fascinating series of discoveries. The eclipse prediction scheme is implemented through descriptive glyphs, inscribed round a 223-month Saros Dial at the rear of the Mechanism: a glyph in a particular month indicates a predicted eclipse. A 2008 publication deciphered the meaning of the glyphs: they indicate whether the predicted eclipse is lunar or solar; the possible visibility of the eclipse; and its time of day. The glyphs also include an alphabetical Index Letter, referring to inscriptions round the Saros Dial, which describe eclipse characteristics. In that publication, the full eclipse prediction scheme was not understood but subsequent work in 2014 made substantial progress. The eclipse characteristics, such as the colour and magnitude of the eclipse, are listed together in the inscriptions, together with a group of Index Letters for the eclipses to which they apply. The deeply puzzling grouping and ordering of these Index Letter Groups was solved with a simple mathematical model, which both explained these groups and the distribution of the glyphs round the Saros Dial—revealing an eclipse prediction scheme of extraordinary sophistication and ambition. Later work in 2016 proposed a radical revision of this eclipse prediction scheme, though it did not challenge the mathematical basis of the scheme. The 2016 scheme implied a completely different picture of the whole of the back plate of the Antikythera Mechanism, destroying its essential mathematical symmetry. This revision is comprehensively refuted here, except for the identification of a new text character in one of the Index Letter Groups, which implies an interesting revision of the 2014 scheme but which preserves the elegant 2014 reconstruction of the back plate of the Antikythera Mechanism.
This paper presents a new edition of the Back Plate Inscription (BPI) of the
Antikythera Mechanism, a series of descriptions of circumstances associated with
eclipses indicated cyclically by the inscriptions of the Mechanism’s Saros Dial
Scale. Our edition features several significant new readings as well as the confirma-
tion of a disputed reading pertaining to one of the index letters by which the BPI’s
paragraphs are linked to the specific eclipse glyphs of the Saros Dial. On the basis of
the new text, we deduce a revision of the established models for determining which
lunar months of the Saros cycle had solar and lunar eclipse possibilities (EPs) and
for assigning the solar EPs to paragraphs of the BPI. We further confirm that the
entire extant part of the BPI comprises consecutive paragraphs concerning the solar
EPs, all inscribed along the right side of the Mechanism’s Back Plate, and we revisit
the questions of what the BPI’s predictions mean and how they relate to the model
for the solar EPs.
Around 1900, a group of sponge divers, pulled out from an ancient Roman shipwreck, near the Antikythera island, a piece of a hardly distinguishable geared mechanism which is known since then as “The Antikythera mechanism”. Until now the exact use of some of its survived gears is investigated and there are speculations about its missing parts. In 2005 two revolutionary technical methods were applied on Antikythera mechanism. The first is known as : (3D) X-ray computed tomography (CT) by X-Tek Systems Ltd, with the use of which many hidden details under the corrosion, came to light. The second is known as : Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) which was applied by HP Labs, revealing engraved symbols and letters on Antikythera mechanism surfaces. After all these years of research, a more comprehensive picture of this machinery was built, leading to the conclusion that it was used as a multi functional “astronomical calculator” according to Freeth et al. (2006b) with many impressive capabilities such as:
•
a prediction of upcoming Solar and Lunar eclipses
•
a calculator of the four astronomical cycles (Metonic cycle, Callippic cycle, Saros cycle, Exeligmos cycle)
•
moon phases indication
•
Sun and Moon position in zodiac
The whole mechanical construction seemed covered by a wooden case with a front and a back door with engraved inscriptions on them. According to Freeth et al. (2006b) “The inscriptions support suggestions of mechanical display of planetary positions” proving the existence of a missing planetary subsystem. In this decrypted text, according to Freeth et al. (2006b), astronomical terms have been recognized like stations Image 1 like statio,conjunctions and according to Jones (2017), there are references about the names of the five known planets. Researchers are trying for years to present planetary activity on their models suggesting different solutions with a common characteristic. In all models of planetary motion, the epicyclic theory is applied. Although this theory is precise enough for planets with negligible eccentricity, fails to demonstrate the real recorded apparent orbit of planets with significant eccentricity, like Mercury’s which is 0.205. On the other hand in Antikythera mechanism remains, there is an advanced device, known as the “pin & slot”, which simulates the non-uniform motion of the moon. According to Moussas (2009)...The difference between Kepler’s predictions on the angular velocity of the Moon during the month and the mechanism’s prediction is of the order 1/400 .... So if the constructor used a specialized gearing to model the moon’s orbit eccentricity which is 0.0549 why not do the same for Mercury’s case with an eccentricity of 3.7 times bigger? Many speculations about the Antikythera mechanism’s purpose have already been expressed, but nevertheless, accuracy is its undeniable feature which should be reflected in the mechanism’s astronomical indications. So, there’s a question that might be answered. ”Is it possible, the planets eccentricity can be simulated using the pin & slot device?”. This research tries to find an answer and proposes a feasible epicyclic gearing which can simulate the geocentric apparent path of Mercury. The construction is taking seriously the planet’s eccentricity, trying to minimize the discrepancy between expected and indicated measurements. Our proposal is based on theories known at the time Antikythera mechanism was constructed.
The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known mechanical calculator. It was constructed around the second century bce and
lost in a shipwreck very close to the small Greek island of Antikythera. The shipwreck was discovered 2,000 years later, in 1900. The Mechanism was recognized in the spring of 1902 as a geared mechanical device displaying calendars and astronomical information. Application of modern imaging methods to the surviving fragments has led to general agreement on the basic structure of the device and its solar and lunar astronomical functions. The reading of the remains of its extensive inscriptions
has shown that it was also intended to display the shifting position of the planets in the zodiac. In this review, we set out our view on what is known about the device, what can reasonably be conjectured and what major uncertainties still remain regarding its origin, context and purpose.
In 1901 divers salvaging antiquities from a Hellenistic shipwreck serendipitously recovered the shattered and corroded remains of an ancient Greek gear-driven device, now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Since its discovery, scholars relying on direct inspection and on increasingly powerful radiographic tools and surface imaging have successfully reconstructed most of the functions and workings of the Mechanism. It was a machine simulating the cosmos as the Greeks understood it, with a half dozen dials displaying coordinated cycles of time and the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
A Portable Cosmos presents the Antikythera Mechanism as a gateway to understanding Greek astronomy and scientific technology and their place in Greco-Roman society and thought. Although the Mechanism has long had the reputation of being an object we would not have expected the ancient world to have produced, the most recent researches have revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman would see how astronomical phenomena were intertwined with one's natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of the genre of wonder-working devices that mimicked nature by means concealed from the viewer, and a mobile textbook of popular science.
This article explores the evidence for the Corinthian family of calendars in light of the calendar recently discovered on the Metonic Spiral of the Antikythera Mechanism. It will be argued that the calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism cannot be that of Syracuse, and that it is likely to be the Epirote calendar, possibly adopted from Corinthian Ambrakia. It will also be argued that the first month of this calendar, Phoinikaios, was ideally the month in which the autumn equinox fell, and that the start-up of the calendar began shortly after the astronomical new moon of August 23, 205 B.C. It will also be shown that the sixth set of games on the Games Dial are the Halieia of Rhodes, suggesting that the Antikythera Mechanism was built on Rhodes, possibly for a client from Epiros. Finally, there will be other observations on the Doric calendars of Argos, Epidauros, and Rhodes.
This is the prefatory paper to a series which presents the surviving text inscriptions on the Antikythera Mechanism. The structure of the mechanism and the history of the reading of the inscriptions are briefly reviewed. The methods used by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project to image the inscriptions —computed tomography and polynomial textual mapping— are outlined. The layout of the inscriptions is described, and the dimensions of the mechanism deduced to allow the space available for inscriptions to be estimated. General conventions and notations are provided for the presentation of the inscriptions.
This paper presents a detailed account of the history of the fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism preserved in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, with particular attention to previous transcriptions and paleographical appraisals of the inscriptions in the fragments. The paper concludes with general observations about the technique and palaeography of the inscriptions.
This article is part of a a <a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/739">special issue on the Antikythera Mechanism Inscriptions</a>
This paper presents an edition with translation and commentary of an extended text that was inscribed on a plate (or conceivably a pair of plates) that lay against the rear face of the Antikythera Mechanism while it was under the sea. This plate, which may have functioned as a protective cover, is extant only in small fragments, but more of its text was preserved as offsets on a layer of accreted matter that built up against it. The text was a systematic description of the dials, pointers, and other external features of the Mechanism, beginning with the front face and continuing with the rear face. The best preserved passages include descriptions of features on lost parts of the Mechanism: a display of pointers bearing small spheres representing the Sun and planets on the front dial, and a dial on the upper back face representing a 76-year “Kallippic” calendrical cycle.
The rear face of the Mechanism consisted of a rectangular “Back Plate“ dominated by two large spiral dials. The upper five-turn Metonic Dial represented a 235-lunar-month calendrical cycle while the lower four-turn Saros Dial represented a 223-lunar-month eclipse prediction cycle. A subsidiary quadrant “Games“ dial was situated inside the Metonic Dial, and a subsidiary three-sector Exeligmos Dial inside the Saros Dial. Preserved text inscribed around the dials (from the lower right quarter of the plate), probably representing about a quarter of the original inscription, provided further information associated with the predictions of eclipses. This paper describes the reconstruction from the Mechanism’s fragments of the surviving parts of the text on the plate and its dials, giving transcriptions and translations. The Metonic Dial inscriptions imply a calendrical scheme similar to that described by Geminos. It was intended to be a version of the calendar of Corinth as it was practiced either at Corinth itself or in some locality of Epirus. The Games dial shows six competitions, four Panhellenic (Olympics, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean) plus Naa (Dodona) and very probably Halieia (Rhodes). On the Saros dial there were probably originally about 50 or 51 month cells with a lunar and/or solar eclipse prediction, each carrying a “glyph“ and an index letter. Predicted eclipse times (in equinoctial hours) on the glyphs were calculated as times of true syzygy according to solar and lunar models that both involved anomaly, with the simple Exeligmos dial extending the predictions over three or more Saros cycles. We are reluctant to base a firm construction date on interpretation of the eclipse cycles. The additional information referred to by index letters from the Saros dial was grouped into paragraphs; that for lunar eclipse prediction probably ran down one side of the plate, and that for solar eclipse prediction down the other. Statements about direction may imply a meteorological aspect by referring to predictions of winds attending the eclipses. Five references to colour and size at eclipse are the only Greco-Roman source known to us that suggests prediction of eclipse colors, and might conceivably be linked with astrology.
The bronze plate known as the “Front Cover” of the Antikythera Mechanism had inscriptions on its outside face. This paper describes the reconstruction of the surviving parts of this text from the Mechanism’s fragments, giving transcriptions and translations. The texts give data on synodic cycles for the five planets, and it may be conjectured that lost lines described the behaviour of the Sun and Moon. The data strongly support the idea that planetary motions were displayed on the front face of the Mechanism using simple epicyclic or eccentric models. Previously unattested long and accurate period relations are given for Venus and Saturn, which are favourable for geared representation and probably of Greek, rather than Babylonian, origin.
The dial at the center of the front face of the Antikythera Mechanism was surrounded by two scales, one representing the zodiac, the other the Egyptian calendar year. The Zodiac Scale was inscribed with the names of the zodiacal signs as well as series of index letters in alphabetic order, while the Egyptian Calendar Scale was inscribed with the Greek names of the Egyptian months. In addition, two rectangular plates, the remains of which survived displaced from their original positions, bore an inscription, called the Parapegma Inscription, comprising an alphabetically indexed list of annually repeating astronomical events relating to the Sun and to fixed stars. This paper gives transcriptions and translations of the inscriptions on the dial scales and the Parapegma Inscription, and deduces the original structure, layout, and location of the Parapegma Inscription. A provisional astronomical analysis of the data in the Parapegma Inscription and tentative restorations of some of its damaged and missing lines are also provided.
The reference publication on the Antikythera Mechanism inscriptions. See individual chapters for abstracts:
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/740">1. General preface to the publication of the inscriptions</a>
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/744">2. Historical Background and General Observations</a>
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/748">3. The Front Dial and Parapegma Inscriptions</a>
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/749">4. The Back Dial and Back Plate Inscriptions</a>
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/750">5. The Back Cover Inscription</a>
<a href="http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/node/751">6. The Front Cover Inscription</a>
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