The Antikythera device: the world's oldest computer
Discovered at the turn of the twentieth century in the Aegean Sea, this ancient mechanical marvel challenges modern ideas about human ingenuity. Step beyond rote learning and explore how ancient minds calculated the cosmos thousands of years ago.
Recovered from the Aegean sea in 1900
In 1900, sponge divers taking shelter off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera stumbled upon a Roman-era shipwreck submerged over forty metres below the surface.
Among the remains of human bodies, bronze sculptures, jewellery, and marble statues, lay a corroded lump of bronze and wood. Initially overlooked, this fractured artefact turned out to be one of the most astonishing archaeological revelations in human history, rewiring our understanding of classical technology.
Being "Roman Era", suggests a timestamp, of it being created around 2000 years ago!
Clockwork complexity centuries ahead of its time
Careful analysis and modern 3D X-ray tomography has revealed an intricate system of at least thirty meshing bronze gear wheels with triangular teeth.
The device functioned as an analogue computer and orrery, predicting solar and lunar eclipses, tracking the irregular orbit of the Moon, charting the positions of the known planets, and even timing the four-year cycle of the ancient Olympic Games with astounding precision.
When was it built, and by whom?
Scholars date the device between 205 BC and 60 BC, but its creators remain an enduring mystery.
While theories link its design to Archimedes of Syracuse or the astronomer Hipparchus, its existence proves that Hellenistic civilization possessed mechanical engineering capabilities not seen again until the fourteenth century in Europe.
Exploring further about this ancient "computer" ;the Antikythera device really should train us to ask many questions, cultivate independent thinking, and appreciate the true depth of Historical human intellectual heritage, that has been kept hidden from us, and why?
Now, despite my school suspending me for asking this question over 4 decades ago, I will update my own question: why am I expected to believe every word written in an unauthored book, about a man who walked the earth and carried out miracles, when we STILL don't know who really built the pyramids, and why? 🤔