Antikythera Mechanism: This 2100 Year Old Gadget Tracked Ancient Olympics
It is know as the Antikythera Mechanism. It was an astronomical calculator, the first analog computer ever to be designed and it was also used to track dates of the ancient Olympic games.
Experts from Britain, Greece and the United States said they have detected the word “Olympia” on a bronze dial, as well as the names of other games in ancient Greece on the device known as the Antikythera Mechanism.
The 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism was recovered from an ancient shipwreck in 1901 near Antikythera, a small island off Greece’s south coast.
Its insides look like a clock. About 30 bronze gears were cranked to calculate phases of the moon, eclipses and other celestial information specific to a certain date
Most workings of the device only came to light with recent advances in scanning technology and computer processing power.
The device currently resides at the National Archaeological museum of Athens.
[ Via AP ]
