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2,100-Year-Old Antikythera Device Recreated In Working Form

Posted by timothy on from the probably-nothing-more-than-an-electrical-meter dept.

coondoggie writes "A new working model of the mysterious 2,100-year-old astronomical calculator, dubbed the Antikythera Device, has been unveiled, incorporating the most recent discoveries announced two years ago by an international team of researchers. The new model was demonstrated by its creator, former museum curator Michael Wright, who had created an earlier model based on decades of study."

5 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Why so down? by elysiuan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surprised with all the negativity. Studying cryptic machines that change the way we view technology's historical progression and after years of work crafting a working replica hardly seems worthy of scorn.

  2. Re:Really? by 2short · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not that the mechanism is amazing by modern standards that is interesting. It's not not even that the mechanism must have been amazing by the standards of the time when it was manufatured. It's that the mechanism is amazing by the standards of at least 1000 years after it was apparently manufactured. Historians find stuff like that interesting; sorry you're not impressed.

  3. Judging by the above coments... by nitsnipe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It looks like Digg has invaded slashdot. Anyways, The fact that 2 millennia ago some were able to make a calculator to predict eclipses is astounding, taking into consideration the religious beliefs and the gullibility of the masses on those times.

    1. Re:Judging by the above coments... by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, especially as it was those religious beliefs that allowed this device to be created in the first place, or did you miss the part about the Babylonian priests? Good God, can't you people get off your Anti-Religion Flaming Horse for one thread a day?

      --
      Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
  4. What putz tagged his !tech? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do realize that technology existed prior to computers, do you not? How the heck is this not technology?

            Brett