This is an intriguing story I first heard a
few weeks ago, when my boss Steve, a keen amateur astronomer and general
all-round geek in his own right, suggested that the Antikythera Mechanism would
make a good subject for a blog posting.
I have kept the story in reserve since then, until a couple of nights
ago, when BBC 4 broadcast a documentary programme about it, The Two-thousand-Year-Old Computer,
which reawakened my interest. Researching a little further, I found that some pretty exotic and exaggerated claims
have been made about the Antikythera Mechanism, including
- It is the oldest known analogue computer
- It was made by aliens
- It can predict the future
- It proves the existence of time travel
Heady stuff indeed, and much too
fascinating to be left on the back-burner any longer, so here it is.
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| The Antikythera Wreck Site |
The story began in the Mediterranean back in
1901, when a sudden and violent storm forced sponge divers to make an
unscheduled stop near the island of Antikythera , on the edge of the Aegean between
mainland Greece and Crete . Whilst stranded
there they decided they may as well try a dive, and discovered not sponges, but
a 2000 year-old Roman shipwreck. The
first impression was of human corpses and dead horses scattered across the
sea-bed. Closer inspection revealed them
to be the remains of a cargo of priceless antiquities including some rare and exquisite
bronze statures, most of which are now housed in the National Archaeological
Museum in Athens.
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| A Fragment of the Antikythera Device |
Among the hoard of beautiful art works, which
included such treasures as The Philosopher’s Head, and full-size statues of Hercules, The Ephebe, a
discus thrower, a marble bull and a bronze lyre, another, less prepossessing artefact was found. Broken into 82 pieces and badly corroded by
its long sojourn at the bottom of the sea, the Antikythera Mechanism looked
like a piece of old junk. It clearly was
some kind of antique machine, however, and an initial archaeological study carried
out in 1902 revealed a gear wheel embedded inside. This led historians to believe the object to
be an astrolabe or astronomical clock: its true purpose and significance was not
discovered for another hundred years.
The main problem for scholars has always
been the sheer depth and inaccessibility of the wreck site. The sponge divers who discovered the wreck
back in 1901 were only able to venture down so far thanks to their heavy diving
suits, with their bulky copper and brass helmets and weighted shoes. Even with this equipment (which remained the
standard diving kit from the late 19th Century through most of the 20th Century)
one of the divers died trying to salvage the wreck, and two others were
paralysed by the bends.
By the 1970s, the story had moved on and,
after decades of careful conservation and cleaning and in-depth study, the
mystery of the Antikythera Mechanism began to unravel. Modern techniques such
as X-ray and gamma scanning allowed scholars to shed more light on its internal
workings, revealing a more complex system of gearing than was previously
recognised.
In 1974 Derek de Solla Price of Yale University
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| Professor de Solla and his Reproduction of the Device |
Professor de Solla discovered that it was probably
made as early as 87 BC, and although no other similar devices from that period
have ever come to light, the sophistication of the design led him to believe
that it cannot have been the first one of its type. Such is the complexity of
the design that it is commonly referred to as the first analogue computer. A reproduction of the mechanism created by
Professor de Solla, along with other reconstructions created by other scholars, is currently on
display in the Athens Museum in a special exhibition about the Antikythera
shipwreck.
By the 1970s deep-sea the design of deep
sea diving equipment had also been modernised and improved, allowing famous TV
personality and undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau to visit the Antikythera wreck. A few more minor finds were brought up by
Cousteau’s team, but, even with their sophisticated scuba equipment, they could
only spend limited time on the sea bed.
For many years afterwards, nobody visited it at all, but in the last
couple of years there has been fresh interest in studying the mechanism, and permission
is being sought from the Greek government to send some new expeditions to the
site.
So, the mystery of the Antikythera
Mechanism continues to baffle and intrigue. Who knows, there may be other undiscovered
fragments still down there. There may even be another mechanism down there!
Postscript
The Antikythera Mechanism was the
inspiration for and a central plot device in a
2010 TV film called Stonehenge Apocalypse, in which it saves
the world from an impending catastrophe.
