presented by:

Professor Alexander Jones

Professor of History in the Exact Sciences in Qntiquity

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

New York University

 

In 1902, fragments of corroded bronze salvaged from a Hellenistic shipwreck off the island of Antikythera were observed to bear gears and other mechanical features as well as Greek inscriptions. More than a century of study, and progressively more powerful imaging technologies, have made it possible at last to reconstruct a large part of this astonishingly complex device and identify its functions. Combining features of a planetarium and a calendar computer, it simulated the movements of the heavenly bodies through the zodiac while concurrently displaying the passage of time according to several chronological frameworks. Long recognized to be a unique artefact of Greek mechanical technology, the Antikythera Mechanism is now yielding remarkable new information about Greek calendars and the public impact of science in antiquity.