Posted on 06/07/2006 3:58:41 PM PDT by aculeus
FOR decades, researchers have been baffled by the intricate bronze mechanism of wheels and dials created 80 years before the birth of Christ.
The "Antikythera Mechanism" was discovered damaged and fragmented on the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny Greek island of Antikythera in 1900. Advert for The Scotsman Digital Archive
Now, a joint British-Greek research team has found a hidden ancient Greek inscription on the device, which it thinks could unlock the mystery.
The team believes the Antikythera Mechanism may be the world's oldest computer, used by the Greeks to predict the motion of the planets.
The researchers say the device indicates a technical sophistication that would not be replicated for millennia and may also be based on principles of a heliocentric, or sun-centred, universe - a view of the cosmos that was not accepted by astronomers until the Renaissance.
The Greek and British scientists used three-dimensional X-ray technology to make visible inscriptions that have gone unseen for 2,000 years.
Mike Edmunds, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University, who is heading the British team, said: "The real question is, 'What was the device actually for?' Was it a used to predict calendars? Was it simply a teaching tool? The new text we have discovered should help answer these questions".
The mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials and was probably operated by hand, Mr Edmunds said. The most prominent appraisal of the mechanism's purpose was put forward in 2002 by Michael Wright, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, who said it was used to track the movements of all the celestial bodies known to the Greeks: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Mr Wright's theory is that the device was created in an academy founded by the Stoic philosopher Poseidonios on the Greek island of Rhodes. The writings of the 1st-century BC orator and philosopher Cicero - himself a former student of Poseidonios - cite a device with similarities to the mechanism.
Xenophon Moussas, a researcher at Athens University, said the newly discovered text seems to confirm that the mechanism was used to track planetary bodies. The researchers are looking at whether the device placed the sun, not the earth, at the centre of the solar system.
He said: "It is a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge in antiquity. The mechanism could rewrite certain chapters in this area."
Yanis Bitsakis, also of Athens University, added: "The challenge is to place this device into a scientific context, as it comes almost out of nowhere ... and flies in the face of established theory that considers the ancient Greeks were lacking in applied technical knowledge."
Mr Edmunds said the researchers were prepared for an onslaught of conspiracy theories. "There's no indication that the device is anything we wouldn't expect of the Greeks or something that would require an extra-terrestrial explanation.
"I think it is a great testament to the sophistication of the Greeks and how far they advanced before the jackboot of the Romans came through." A timeshift in the history of astronomy
IF THE Antikythera Mechanism turns out to have been a machine for showing the movements of the planets around the sun, it would greatly alter our understanding of the history of astronomy.
Although at least one Greek thinker posited a heliocentric view of the solar system, the dominant view at the time was Aristotle's - that the Earth was the centre of the universe and that everything rotated around it in perfect, circular orbits.
It was not until 1,400 years later that Copernicus and Galileo conclusively proved the heliocentric view, which greatly altered man's understanding of his importance and position in the universe.
Their work was met with stern resistance, as the Church believed the Aristotlean view - which put humanity at the centre of the cosmos - was integral to man's direct relation to God.
Researchers are now searching for clues that the Antikythera Mechanism might have been governed by heliocentric principles. If they are successful, it would suggest the heliocentric world-view was more accepted by the Greeks than thought.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=838112006
Last updated: 07-Jun-06 16:43 BST
"Were Greeks 1,400 years ahead of their time?"
And WE'RE curious about THEIR time keeping
mechanisms?
Ok .. you win. I refuse to admit being OLD enough to have used one of those!
Cool site! Whodathunkit that one day, computers would become "collectibles". Maybe I shoulda kept that old Vic-20 after all!
I waited to get into computers until building it yourself was no longer required. I was too busy raising kids actually. By the time I went back to college (studied computer information systems) you no longer had to submit your programs on punched cards but could enter them directly yourself.
Wow, a whole whopping 26k of RAM? Whatever did you do with all that memory!
"daisey wheel printer"
They were big $$$$$ and clunky, yet they represented sort of a transition between electric typewriters and the dot-matrix printers. It took a while to wean some people from using typewriters and calculators into computers, and DWPs were one way to move them.
Me too! Curtas were cool.
I still have my daisy-wheel printer, which is also a typewriter.
Boy! That was some state of the art back then!
I lost your phone number... what was that again?
They were big $$$$$ and clunky, yet they represented sort of a transition between electric typewriters and the dot-matrix printers.
It took a while to wean some people from using typewriters and calculators into computers, and DWPs were one way to move them.
Dot matrix printers were never a choice for business correspondence. I couldn't get a word processor into one of my old offices until the daisy wheel printers came out. All letters and specification had to appear professional and only character impact printers delivered. Other side of the problem was that copiers degraded legibilty of the already poor originals.
Transitions in office environs went like this: IBM Executive; IBM Selectric; Daisy Wheel printers: laser printers.
Line printers, small dot matrix printers were for in house drafts by techs, acct'g, basic back office stuff.
Cool!
Any body yet figure out what's in the chamber under the front paws of the Sphinx?
I have a Fortune 32:16 with some software and a couple of terminals that you can have for free. Hasn't been started in fifteen years, but gave very good service to my parents' business from 1982 to 1991.
It is also an effective argument against unlimited immigration.
It was tough to fill 26 k. Actually, at the time, it was a waste of money. Each 8 k board cost $440!
It's a huge ball of yarn.
Actually, I was serious, as in the work of Robert Schock.
Hey, they had to use a lot of rope moving all those stones.
When the job was finished, well ...
Okay, if that's the way you want it, Bob. BTW, those stones were brought to the pyramids as powder and reconstituted into blocks in situ ... not that much rope was needed.
I have a different theory.
bump
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