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Mystery of Ancient Calculator Finally Cracked

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the Curta-had-nothing-on-the-ancients dept.

jcaruso writes, "It's been more than 100 years since the discovery of the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, but researchers are only now figuring out how it works." From the article: "Since its discovery in 1902, the Antikythera Mechanism — with its intricate and baffling system of about 30 geared wheels — has been an enigma... During the last 50 years, researchers have identified various astronomical and calendar functions, including gears that mimic the movement of the sun and moon. But it has taken some of the most advanced technology of the 21st century to decipher during the past year the most advanced technology of the 1st century B.C."

4 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Just goes to show... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don't throw out the instructions; archaeologists from the 40th century might need them.

    On the serious side, though... How much of our stuff will be unusable only 200 years from now?

    1. Re:Just goes to show... by Suzuran · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As part of the Project Apollo research effort, I can tell you that the Apollo spacecraft (Which is arguably one of mankind's greatest achievements) didn't even make it 50 years - Even now, with the spacecraft still intact and the crew still alive, we are having to undertake a large reverse-engineering project with limited documentation to recreate the operation of the spacecraft.

  2. Re:Like the Mormons' tablets... by Petrushka · · Score: 5, Interesting
    they keep the writing secret? What's up with that.

    Because it's kind of hard to read, even if you know Greek. Quite a lot of work needs to be done to get the text transcribed fully, even if parts of it are easy to read. Have you looked at the third image in the slide show? Could you make an accurate transcription of the text shown?

    FWIW, I can read Greek, but all I can make out is some references to a "square showing a given" something, some numbers, and something about moving some bits of the mechanism but not others. The third line's got some words in it but I can't fit them together without context.

  3. Link to Working Unit by EEPROMS · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Pictures and Images to a working unit can be found here