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THE remains of a 2,200-year-old badog “computer” discovered among the artefacts of an ancient shipwreck continue to baffle scientists.
The freakishly complex Antikythera Mechanism is believed to have used bronze cogs and levers to predict the phases of the sun and moon.
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It may even have been capable of calculating the course of planets and stars through the night sky.
Many have attempted to reconstruct the badembly of cogs, wheels and levers.
But engineers and mathematicians alike have been struggling to understand the complexity of the Antikythera Mechanism since it was discovered in the 1950s.
The device was found just off the small island of Antikythera between Greece and Crete, and an expedition has been funded to recover more artefacts from the device.
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The machine’s precise uses and capabilities remain a mystery.
But it was operated by hand, and was probably cranked by priests to awe audiences with predictions of impending eclipses and other celestial alignments.
It fell to the seabed after the ship carrying it was wrecked upon rocks some 2,200 years ago.
What is known is it was built by the Greeks and used Babylonian calendar and star observations to calculate the movements of the sun and moon to predict eclipses and equinoxes.
How many cogs made up the original device is unknown, but the number is believed to be between 37 and 70.
AFP – Getty
Others argue there may have actually been two different devices carried on the ship, with their components having become mixed up.
But the complexity of a device so old as left experts surprised and impressed.
The device predates Nicolaus Copernicus’ heliocentric planetary system by some 1,700 years.
If archaeologists are right, that advanced level of astronomical study, maths and mechanics were not achieved again by mankind for another 500 years.
A recent find from the expedition found a heavily encrusted bronze disc, about 8cm wide.
AP:Associated Press
An article in the Israeli publication Haaretz declared it to be a lost cog from the Anikythera mechanism itself.
It carried the sign of a bull — Taurus — and seemed to prove the machine was more complex than many dared dream.
The bronze disc had four protrusions, large “cog-like” teeth.
It’s since been X-rayed and scanned.
Brett Seymour / EUA/ARGO
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But other archaeologists have been quick to point out the new report overemphasises the importance of the bronze disc.
The four protrusions were cogs, they’re unusually crude for such an intricate device.
At best, the bull-disc could have been an ornamental piece attached to the Antikythera Mechanism’s case.
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