2000 Year Old Astronomical Computer has Scientists Perplexed
Professor Mike Edmunds of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in the UK and Mathematician Dr Tony Freeth first heard of the Antikythera Mechanism, a clock-like astronomical calculator dating back to 80 BC, several years ago. Now they believe they have cracked the centuries-old mystery of how it actually works.
Just before Easter in 1901, six Greek sponge divers and their crew were blown off course in the Mediterranean between the islands of Kythera and Crete. They dropped anchor by the tiny island of Antikythera.
They decided to dive into those unfamiliar waters to see if they could find sponges. What they did find was the badly decomposed hulk of a trading ship that had sunk around 80 BC -- just before Cleopatra and just before Imperial Rome.
The Greek government sent the sponge divers back on a navy ship. They dove 140 feet down into the wreck. This was before scuba apparatus and breathing tanks. They dove for a year, bringing up statues and other trade goods. By the time they were done, one diver had died and two were permanently crippled.
Scholars began looking closely at one item -- a badly corroded set of brass gears, cased in a wooden frame. The remnants of the broken wooden and bronze case contained more than 30 gears. They figured the gadget had to've been some kind of navigational astrolabe, and the fragments lay there in the museum.
In 1973, Yale historian Derek de Solla Price finally published a monumental seventy-page study of the item. When he did, our whole view of ancient Mediterranean technology changed.
From what could be read of the inscriptions on the gears, it was determined that this device was a small planetarium designed to calculate and display the position of the sun and moon. Its complex gear train was, in fact, a sophisticated analog computer.
Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. The new research suggests it is more sophisticated than anyone previously thought.
Detailed work on the gears in the mechanism showed it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The calculator was able 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 Cardiff University team believes it may also have predicted the positions of the planets.
The findings suggest that Greek technology was far more advanced than previously thought. No other civilization is known to have created anything as complicated for another millennium.
Professor Edmunds said: "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully."
The team is made up of researchers from Cardiff University, the National Archeological Museum of Athens, and the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki, supported by a substantial grant from the Leverhulme Trust. The researchers were greatly aided by the UK firm X-Tek, who developed powerful X-Ray computer technology to help with the study of corroded fragments of the machine. Hewlett-Packard provided imaging technology to enhance the surface details of the machine.
The mechanism is in 70 pieces and stored in precisely controlled conditions in Athens where it cannot be touched. Recreating its workings was a difficult, painstaking process, involving astronomers, mathematicians, computer experts, script analysts and conservation experts.
The researchers are now hoping to create a computer model of how the machine worked and, in time, a full working replica. It is still uncertain what the ancient Greeks used the mechanism for, or how widespread this technology was.
Professor Edmunds said: "It does raise the question what else were they making at the time. In term of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa."
For More Iformation:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/newsevents/22801.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1031.htm
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/historyofscience/aboutthecentre/staff/mr%20michael%20wright
Just before Easter in 1901, six Greek sponge divers and their crew were blown off course in the Mediterranean between the islands of Kythera and Crete. They dropped anchor by the tiny island of Antikythera.
They decided to dive into those unfamiliar waters to see if they could find sponges. What they did find was the badly decomposed hulk of a trading ship that had sunk around 80 BC -- just before Cleopatra and just before Imperial Rome.
The Greek government sent the sponge divers back on a navy ship. They dove 140 feet down into the wreck. This was before scuba apparatus and breathing tanks. They dove for a year, bringing up statues and other trade goods. By the time they were done, one diver had died and two were permanently crippled.
Scholars began looking closely at one item -- a badly corroded set of brass gears, cased in a wooden frame. The remnants of the broken wooden and bronze case contained more than 30 gears. They figured the gadget had to've been some kind of navigational astrolabe, and the fragments lay there in the museum.
In 1973, Yale historian Derek de Solla Price finally published a monumental seventy-page study of the item. When he did, our whole view of ancient Mediterranean technology changed.
From what could be read of the inscriptions on the gears, it was determined that this device was a small planetarium designed to calculate and display the position of the sun and moon. Its complex gear train was, in fact, a sophisticated analog computer.
Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. The new research suggests it is more sophisticated than anyone previously thought.
Detailed work on the gears in the mechanism showed it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The calculator was able 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 Cardiff University team believes it may also have predicted the positions of the planets.
The findings suggest that Greek technology was far more advanced than previously thought. No other civilization is known to have created anything as complicated for another millennium.
Professor Edmunds said: "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully."
The team is made up of researchers from Cardiff University, the National Archeological Museum of Athens, and the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki, supported by a substantial grant from the Leverhulme Trust. The researchers were greatly aided by the UK firm X-Tek, who developed powerful X-Ray computer technology to help with the study of corroded fragments of the machine. Hewlett-Packard provided imaging technology to enhance the surface details of the machine.
The mechanism is in 70 pieces and stored in precisely controlled conditions in Athens where it cannot be touched. Recreating its workings was a difficult, painstaking process, involving astronomers, mathematicians, computer experts, script analysts and conservation experts.
The researchers are now hoping to create a computer model of how the machine worked and, in time, a full working replica. It is still uncertain what the ancient Greeks used the mechanism for, or how widespread this technology was.
Professor Edmunds said: "It does raise the question what else were they making at the time. In term of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa."
For More Iformation:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/newsevents/22801.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1031.htm
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/historyofscience/aboutthecentre/staff/mr%20michael%20wright
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