No, we’re not talking about a Radio Shack TRS-80, but something a little bit older than that:
A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.
But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.
That device, called the Antikythera Mechanism by scholars has now been thoroughly examined and reveals a surprising degree of technical sophistication on the part of its creators:
[F]indings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon?s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.
(…)
The mechanism, presumably used in preparing calendars for seasons of planting and harvesting and fixing religious festivals, had at least 30, possibly 37, hand-cut bronze gear-wheels, the researchers reported. An ingenious pin-and-slot device connecting two gear-wheels induced variations in the representation of lunar motions according to the Hipparchos model of the Moon?s elliptical orbit around Earth.
The functions of the mechanism were determined by the numbers of teeth in the gears. The 53-tooth count of certain gears, the researchers said, was ?powerful confirmation of our proposed model of Hipparchos? lunar theory.?
The detailed imaging revealed more than twice as many inscriptions as had been recognized from earlier examinations. Some of these appeared to relate to planetary as well as lunar motions. Perhaps, the researchers said, the mechanism also had gearings to predict the positions of known planets.
More fascinating is not just the fact that the knowledge and technology needed to create a device this complex existed in Ancient Greece, but that the knowledge simply disappeared from the Earth with the fall of Greek Civilization:
Dr. Charette noted that more than 1,000 years elapsed before instruments of such complexity are known to have re-emerged. A few artifacts and some Arabic texts suggest that simpler geared calendrical devices had existed, particularly in Baghdad around A.D. 900.
It seems clear, Dr. Charette said, that ?much of the mind-boggling technological sophistication available in some parts of the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman world was simply not transmitted further,? adding, ?The gear-wheel, in this case, had to be reinvented.?
Imagine the same thing happening today.
