No, Archaeologists Probably Did Not Find a New Piece of the Antikythera Mechanism

Smithsonian ^ | November 15, 2018 | Jason Daley

[SunkenCiv]

This week, word began to spread around some corners of the web that a new piece of the legendary ancient Greek computer known as the Antikythera Mechanism may have been found. But the claims, which surfaced following a Haaretz feature on the ongoing archaeological work in the area where the device was first uncovered, are misleading at best...

...in 2017... marine archaeologists from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and Lund University in Sweden uncovered more treasures including pieces of a bronze statue and an encrusted bronze disk with four tabs on it that appeared almost like a cog wheel. That piece, called the Taurus disk because it bears the image of a bull, is the artifact that Haaretz identified as a possible part of the mechanism...

...X-rays of the disk conducted last year revealed that image of the bull and the four holes... Sarah Gibbens of National Geographic wrote that the small disk was "reminiscent" of the Antikythera Mechanism, but that expedition co-leader Aggeliki Simossi said it was unclear what its purpose was...

While Haaretz and others reported the bull image suggests the disc was used... to predict the position of the constellation Taurus, it does not appear to be finely crafted enough function as a cog wheel in the precision machine...

...we are learning more about the ship it sailed on. It was likely a massive Greek grain ship, one of the largest ancient ships ever found, as archaeologist Brendan Foley, who led the new expeditions, tells Haaretz. At the times of its sinking, which likely happened in a storm, it was probably full of grain, statues and wealthy passengers, perhaps one who clung to his prized gadget as he sank into the sea.

[SunkenCiv]

A bronze disc found near the shipwreck last year is likely not a cog wheel from the ancient Greek astronomical proto-computer (Brett Symour/EUA/ARGO 2017)

[Larry Lucido]

“Is anybody here a marine archaeologist from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and Lund University in Sweden?! How about a marine architect?”

[arrogantsob]

Is that an animal inside the disk?

[SunkenCiv]

Granted that the wreck was on the sea floor for 2,000 years, my quite minority view remains unchanged, that the ship was carrying random salvage, a common thing during the Roman Empire just as it is now. The Mechanism itself may have gone out of date, or may have been intended for sale, but it just as easily could have been broken into pieces for recycling before it was loaded. I think the statues were also fragmentary, and mismatched at that.

It would be interesting to learn if this was one of those great big grain haulers, but ships ireespective of size carried lots of different cargo to spread the economic risk as they called on more than one port. According to the late Lionel Casson, the Roman grain haulers were so large that only a few places in the Mediterranean were able to handle them -- Alexandria and Rome being the main ones.

[SunkenCiv]

Not anymore, he ain't, heh heh heh. It's a bull image, sez here.

[Publius]

Cult of Mithras.

[SunkenCiv]

Titleist?

[SunkenCiv]

2,000 Year Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism - Full Documentary HD

[az_gila]

How large are we talking about for these grain haulers?

[SunkenCiv]

Reconstruction of the newly discovered disc. Image: EUA (left) and Alexander Tourtas

[SunkenCiv]

There are no surviving examples, but the Caligula (third emperor) had columns quarried in Egypt for a temple, each one of those ran about 200 tons. The largest of the obelisks now in Rome was likewise brought during Caligula's reign, and exceeds 300 tons; that ship was so large that it was kept around as a tourist attraction. The bread dole in Rome supported at least a couple hundred thousand for at least a few centuries, with peak years of about 400,000, so there must have been a good-sized fleet of grain ships for that and for the rest of the million or so residents of the city. Casson estimated 100 tons for the grain ships, but they probably much larger than that.

[SunkenCiv]

2017 Return to Antikythera Expedition

• Google search "statues from antikythera wreck"

[ConservaTeen]

Amazing...I still would love to see that ‘computer’!!

[Chainmail]

Great stuff!

[SunkenCiv]

Try those YT vids above, I've yet to watch the one from 2017.

[SunkenCiv]

I'm glad I hadn't posted the Ha'aretz piece. Uh, at least, I don't think I did. Procrastination pays off for a change.

[SunkenCiv]

These are the GGG topics added since the last time I did this, which was only near the beginning of this month, it sez here:

• Cracking the Cambrian
• France urged to return looted African art treasures
• The Pilgrims May Not Be Who You Think They Were: An Interview with Jay Milbrandt
• Evidence of Sodom? Meteor blast cause of biblical destruction, say scientists
• New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered
• Army Of Miniaturized Terracotta Warriors Discovered Guarding 2,100-Year-Old Chinese Prince's Tomb
• First-ever Oregon dinosaur bone found by scientists
• On this date in 1863
• Walls at Alesia [Gallic Wars]
• New Virtual Reconstruction Of A Neanderthal Thorax Suggests Another Breathing Mechanism
• This Day in History: Railroad companies create the first time zones
• Wreck of Argentine submarine is found 2,600ft beneath the waves a year after it exploded...
• Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what's a mineral
• Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive'
• Geoscientists Find Large Impact Crater in Greenland
• Are the Laws of the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?
• 'Jesus' face' uncovered at ancient church in the Israeli desert
• Massive crater under Greenland's ice points to climate-altering impact in the time of humans
• Greek Authorities Say Lost Ancient City of Tenea Located
• Newly-Discovered Cretaceous Bird Lived Among Dinosaurs, Was Strong Flier
• Inventive Orangutans Make Hook Tools to Retrieve Food
• 115,000-Year-Old Bones Found In Poland Reveal Neanderthal Child Eaten By Gigantic Prehistoric Bird
• Hidden and little known places: Kul-Oba an ancient archaeological site, eastern Crimea
• Archaeologists find haul of mummified cats after discovering seven 4,500-year-old tombs
• 2000 year old Roman-period carvings discovered
• Archaeologists unearth stunning ancient statues by farmer planting olive trees in Greece
• Three New DNA Studies Are Shaking Up the History of Humans in the Americas
• Potatoes Were Not Just A Symbol Of The Elite In Ancient Peru, Archaeologists Find
• This animal on a cave wall in Borneo is the oldest known figurative painting in the world
• Fern plant infusion keeps the doctor away in Medieval Europe
• Frequent inbreeding may have caused skeletal abnormalities in early humans
• Dirty jokes in latrine mosaics entertained Ancient Romans
• When the Syrians bathed like the Romans
• World's oldest chocolate was made 5300 years ago -- in a South American rainforest
• Dedham ram-raid uncovers 'evil influences pot' [Tudor structure]
• Discovery of velvet bag may solve gory mystery of Walter Raleigh's missing head
• Major corridor of Silk Road already home to high-mountain herders over 4,000 years ago
• Earliest hominin migrations into the Arabian Peninsula required no novel adaptations
• The Indians of the Ecuadorian Amazon were using cocoa 5,300 years ago
• Study reconstructs Neandertal ribcage, offers new clues to ancient human anatomy
• The Nicea Church: Where Did the Council of Nicea Meet? [Grant's Tomb stumper]
• 99 million-year-old beetle found trapped in amber
• Catalogue of planetary maps, past and present, highlights our evolving view of our Solar System
• Lost city of Atlantis FOUND in Antarctica? Bizarre structure exposed by melting ice
• Listen To The World's Oldest-Known Melody (1400 BC)
• Polish Army Swoops In on Nazi 'Gold Train' Site
• 10 Weapons That Animals Use
• Deep history of coconuts decoded (Colonization of the Americas?)
• A need for music even in cave era ('Neanderthal conservatives')
• Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'
• English Patient was 'ugly, gay' Nazi spy
• American Indians Wary Of DNA Tests

[Grimmy]

No, Archaeologists Probably Did Not Find a New Piece of the Antikythera Mechanism

***************************************

How do they know? That Bull piece might be a cover plate for the antikythera gizmo!

That antikythera gizmo might have been nothing more than a really complicated alarm clock to remind a farmer to feed his livestock!

Or something.

[SunkenCiv]

The bull doesn't fit anywhere. The layers of non-invasive scans done on the A.M. revealed thousands of Greek letters engraved on the bronze, including sentences of text which explained functions and such. This permitted the virtual reconstruction of the entire machine, including missing gears and other parts.

[SunkenCiv]

I don't think the Mithraic bull ever was portrayed without Mithras, but since little is known about the cult, it could be related somehow.