New Clues for Antikythera Mechanism

fuzzybunny writes "The Register reports that British and Dutch scientists located a previously undetected word on the Antikythera Mechanism which seems to confirm its nature as a tool for astronomical prediction. This device is one of the world's first known geared devices; while its purpose is still not 100% clear, according to the article, 'Athens university researcher Xenophon Moussas is reported as saying the "newly discovered text seems to confirm that the mechanism was used to track planetary bodies."'"

Not just the first known geared device

[brian0918]

It's also one of the earliest, if not the earliest, -known example of an analog computer.

My officemate had this has his 'honours thesis'

[OnanTheBarbarian]

Back in 1993, I had an officemate (Bernard Gardner, working for the late Allan Bromley) who worked on doing a 3D reconstruction of this mechanism using the tomography images that had recently been done. From what I recall, they made a bit of progress, discovering that two gears that were previously thought to be joined were merely next to each other and on independent axles; the previous assumption would have resulted in a mechanism that couldn't operate (locked together). But they still really didn't know what it did, and sadly, Allan Bromley (who was one of the main people interested in this device) died in 2002.

Overall, it's a fascinating find - I never cease to be amazed at the complexity of many pre-industrial artifacts.
I'm curious as to what sort of mechanical insights - not just inscription reading - the new analysis technique can provide.

I want to sniff some ASS-PANTIES!!11!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to sniff some ASS-PANTIES!!!1!!1!~!1!!

Re:Curious

[kfg]

The device was found in a shipwreck. The ship appears to have been a Roman trader on its way back to Italy. By dating the goods on the ship the wreck has been dated to the later half of the first century B.C.

The device is inscribed. The typography is the sort that was prevelant in the later half of the first century B.C. So are the words and the grammatical structure.

Two independant means of dating accord with each other.

The specific figure 80 B.C. comes from an estimate of its age being 65 B.C. +/- 15 years, so 80 B.C. is actually the youngest it is estimated it could be. The most conservative number to cite, not an exact age.

KFG

Clear Skies

[Doc Ruby]

I haven't heard whether the antikythera actually worked to accurately show the sky, but I expect that further tests will show that it did.

The Pyramids aren't "incorrectly placed" to represent the stars of "Orion". Their positions are different from Orion's exact shape today, but are exactly correct for their slightly different positions 13.5Ky ago - and again about 12Ky in the future. Discovering that correspondence allowed the discoverers to find 2 previously undocumented pyramids buried nearby, corresponding to other stars in the constellation. FWIW, the "Greek" who knew the Earth was round, even calculating its circumference within 1% accuracy, was Eratosthenes, actually an "Egyptian" (or neighboring "Libyan").

Angkor Wat is sync'ed to "Draco", also 13.5Ky ago. Other global monuments reflect other constellations, including all kinds of Greek monuments.

Stonehenge wasn't merely a sundial, but rather a calibration to various celestial events throughout the year and the centuries.

These devices were used to navigate around a global civilization that shared a celestial framework. Not just markers, but also a consistent framework of stories of supernatural characters that ensured their perpetuation across the world and through time. Because that knowledge was accepted on faith by most, just like most people accept GPS, watches and Web reservation systems on faith today, they're "religious" objects. I hope our exposure to more ancient versions will help us examine our own mystification of current practices at least as much as it demystifies ancient practice.

Re:Not just the first known geared device

[sbaker]

No - it's neither the first known geared device - nor the first use of a differential gear nor the first analog computer. The chinese had them beat by close to 2000 years...read and learn:

80BC Antikythera mechanism:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism [wikipedia.org]

2000BC South pointing chariot - a geared mechanism with a differential.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pointing_Chario t [wikipedia.org]

The south pointing chariot subtracted the number of revolutions of one wheel from the number of revolutions of the other and multiplies by some constant that relates the diameter of the wheels to the distance between them. It had to have used a differential to do that because a 'differential' by definition is any mechanism that computes a difference.

Technically, the South pointing chariot was an analog computer...well, as much as the Antikythera contraption was - albeit on a smaller scale.

Re:What is it with Scientists not releasing findin

[The_Wilschon]

At Fermilab, no data gets released until the entire experimental collaboration (500-700 people in the case of CDF and D0) has approved, or "blessed" it. Why is this? One is scientific credibility. You don't get to publish a paper and then send out bugfix updates. Once something is published, it is published for all time (well, until civilisation collapses at least). You can retract it by publishing a retraction, but that is looked upon as evidence of a rather bad failure. The second reason is that since it is a US national laboratory, the government owns the data. The department of energy, as I understand it, requires this blessing process before any analysis of their data is published.

Let's stick with fact, not legend

[laura20]

Legend, rather than fact. The article says:

2634 BC According to Legend, Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor designs the South Pointing Chariot. It is built for him by the craftsman Fang Bo.

I'll point out that the Yellow Emperor is also credited in Chinese lgeend with inventing the cart, the boat, and the calendar. He's a culture-hero and myth, not history to be cited. The Duke of Chou is similiarly legendified.

Note that the 'reinvention' of it (most likely, the actual invention) dates well after the Antikythera mechanism. And even then, there don't appear to be any surviving plans or carts, and at least one claim that it was an actual person in the cart, not a mechanism.