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Scientist tackles mystery of ancient astronomical device
Phys.org, Science X network ^ | January 6, 2015 | Sandi Doughton, The Seattle Times

Posted on 01/11/2015 1:41:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv

"The amazing thing is the mechanical engineering aspect," says James Evans, a physicist and science historian at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. He is part of an international group working to crack the puzzle of the device's origins and purpose. Evans recently added a new twist with an analysis that suggests it dates to 205 B.C. -- as much as a century earlier than previously believed.

If he's right, it is more likely that the Antikythera Mechanism was inspired by the work of the legendary Greek mathematician Archimedes. It would also mean the device was built at time when scientific traditions from multiple cultures were coming together to create a new view of the cosmos...

Greek sponge divers stumbled across the wreck of the Roman galley in 1900, after being blown off course and taking shelter in the lee of the tiny island north of Crete. During underwater excavations the next year, they hauled up one of the richest bounties of Greek artifacts ever uncovered -- but one diver died and two others were crippled from working at depths of up to 200 feet.

French explorer Jacques Cousteau visited the site in the 1950s and 1970s, using an underwater vacuum to suck up sediment and reveal buried objects.

Scientists think the ship was a merchant vessel that foundered around 60 B.C.

Archaeologists eventually identified more than 80 corroded fragments believed to be part of the Antikythera Mechanism, including the shoebox-size piece with dials and gears clearly visible on the surface.

The real breakthrough in understanding came in 2005, when a team of scientists used X-ray tomography to peer through the encrusted metal and reveal the layers of gears inside. Digital techniques yielded the first sharp images of the inscriptions on the dials and casings.

(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: aegean; antikythera; antikytheramechanism; archimedes; godsgravesglyphs; greece; jacquescousteau; romanempire; salvage
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To: dinodino
I doubt that.

I'm sorry but what point that I made are you doubting? The expense of creating the mechanism or its functioning? What references are you citing? I'm not disputing just curious.

21 posted on 01/11/2015 4:33:37 AM PST by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: pepsionice

“And what they knew....was lost.”

After being assigned in Babylon, Iraq for a number of years, visiting foreign battle fields & forgotten cities, and the study of warfare, I have come to the same conclusion that there have been great leaps forward by mankind in understanding the universe and all number of issues that surround us presently - most of which have been lost due to conflict, disease, or a culture subdued into thinking that such information is evil and thus destroyed...

This brings mankind into a darkness and it take a very long time for generations at some later date to rise out of it...losing time and precious data like this device once held. That is sad.


22 posted on 01/11/2015 4:44:42 AM PST by BCW (ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
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To: SunkenCiv
Why would the Babylonians need to know when the Olympic games were to be held?

Read my post again. The a Greek King could have had the Babylonians to manufacture it for him.

23 posted on 01/11/2015 4:47:52 AM PST by CptnObvious
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To: BCW

Or simple lack of the means of communication of the knowledge. Then it just dies out when the people who understood it die. No one grasped the need for recording things in some way.


24 posted on 01/11/2015 4:51:13 AM PST by firebrand
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To: SunkenCiv
A couple of more counters to dispel the RAT...

I have reviewed NASA's design, and the teeth of the grinder are located on the peripheral (around the circumference) of the device, plus there is no (cross) structure in the grinder that would remotely give the impression of a celtic cross. What has been excavated by the RAT are a 1 3/4" by 1/4" smooth circles.

I am not saying that find up there is un-natural, or it is related to the device in this thread, but it sure is interesting, and a plausible explanation is still needed as far as I am concerned.

25 posted on 01/11/2015 4:56:54 AM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: dinodino; SES1066

There are ancient descriptions of similar devices. Historians tended to dismiss these accounts as exaggerations, but this example gives such accounts credence. It is unlikely that the Antikythera mechanism was unique.

It was most likely more a novelty than anything practical.


26 posted on 01/11/2015 5:33:21 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: pepsionice; SunkenCiv; SES1066; Hot Tabasco; BCW; catfish1957
pepsionice: "Somewhere out there....two and three thousand years ago....we had brilliant men...generations ahead of Einstein.
And what they knew....was lost."

Sure, they were smart, as smart as any good mechanical engineer today, no doubt about it.
But they weren't all that freekin smart:

On the Antikythera mechanism:


27 posted on 01/11/2015 5:39:46 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective.)
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To: BroJoeK

The most striking thing about it is the gear works and the engineering.


28 posted on 01/11/2015 5:50:27 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: 1010RD

Aliens I tell you!


29 posted on 01/11/2015 6:31:19 AM PST by DAC21
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To: pepsionice

“The best description for this: If you took ten of the best scientist and engineers of our times today, and locked them into a vault with no access to computers, and gave them a simple detailed requirement to develop or design something like this out of thin air......it might take forty years and you can’t even be sure of the success of the end-result.”

LOL, just look at how long it is taking to reinvent Apollo technology.


30 posted on 01/11/2015 6:38:31 AM PST by DonaldC (A nation cannot stand in the absence of religious principle.)
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To: pepsionice

“...The best description for this: If you took ten of the best scientist and engineers of our times today, and locked them into a vault with no access to computers, and gave them a simple detailed requirement to develop or design something like this out of thin air......it might take forty years...”

Nonsense. If you know the relative motions of the planets, you can build an orrery very easily. There are thousands of clock makers and home shop machinists that could work this out over night.


31 posted on 01/11/2015 6:50:53 AM PST by Born to Conserve
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To: SunkenCiv

Mine’s the oldest listed.

•”Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer”?

11/1/2003


32 posted on 01/11/2015 6:58:15 AM PST by Holly_P (Holly has two days off and consecutive days at that. - WHOOPEE!)
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To: SunkenCiv
Here is a photo of an archaeologist in Egypt. Note what the red arrow is pointing to....
That's right ALIENS!

33 posted on 01/11/2015 7:26:45 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound

Look closer, it is R2D2.


34 posted on 01/11/2015 7:28:39 AM PST by MHGinTN
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To: 1010RD

The precision of the work perhaps is being overlooked ... I agree with you that THAT is the astonishing thing about this device.


35 posted on 01/11/2015 7:31:07 AM PST by MHGinTN
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To: SunkenCiv

The Antikythera Mechanism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpLcnAIpVRA&feature=player_embedded


36 posted on 01/11/2015 7:31:40 AM PST by preacher (I am not a global warming hoax denier.)
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To: CptnObvious
And why would someone on a ship need to know when the Olympic games were to be held?

Priorities. Gotta be back in port with a keg of beer for the start of the big game.

37 posted on 01/11/2015 7:45:21 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: MHGinTN

R2D2 is an alien bot


38 posted on 01/11/2015 7:50:55 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound

And Dr. Jones is a fictional character ... so what’s your point?


39 posted on 01/11/2015 8:13:13 AM PST by MHGinTN
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To: MHGinTN

I do not know of this Dr Jones you speak of.....
That is a photo of an archaeologist in Egypt.


40 posted on 01/11/2015 8:29:08 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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