![]() ![]() Related: Ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism came with a user guide Using inscriptions found on the mechanism and a mathematical model of how the planets moved that was first devised by the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, they were able to create a computer model for a mechanism of overlapping gears that fit inside a just barely 1-inch-deep (2.5 centimeters) compartment. To create the model, the researchers drew on all of the past research on the device, including that of Michael Wright, a former curator at the Science Museum in London, who had previously constructed a working replica. (Image credit: Tony Freeth/UCL) Making the first computer That's a bit like what we're trying to do here."Įach gear in the mechanism charts the movement of a heavenly body. It's like answering how they built Stonehenge, let's get 200 people with some rope and a big stone and try to pull it across Salisbury Plain. "These are questions that we can only really answer through experimental archaeology. "What is it doing on that ship? We only found one-third where are the other two ? Have they corroded away? Did it ever work?" Wojcik said. Related: The 20 most mysterious shipwrecks ever This sophistication brings up a lot of questions about the manufacturing process that could have made such a uniquely intricate contraption, as well as why it was discovered as the only known device of its kind on an ancient sunken ship off the island of Antikythera. The intricate gears that made up the device's mechanism are of a scale you could expect to find in a grandfather clock, but the only other gears discovered from around the same period are the much larger ones that went into things like ballistas, or large crossbows, and catapults. "Frankly, there is nothing like it that has ever been found. "The distance between this device's complexity and others made at the same time is infinite," co-author Adam Wojcik, a materials scientist at UCL, told Live Science. In addition, nobody had ever created a model of the so-called Cosmos that reconciled with all of the physical evidence. ![]() The researchers wanted to recreate the device because of all the mystery surrounding it, as a way to possibly get to the bottom of so many questions. (Image credit: National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece) (opens in new tab) Why recreate Antikythera? This is the largest piece of the 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, which is on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. ![]()
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