The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient hand powered Greek computer, is a mechanical calculator and it is also described as the first mechanical computer also it been described as the first example of such device used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar decades in advance. It was discovered in 1901 in a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera, Greece. Lots of gears worked together, much like they do in a mechanical clock.
Did you know?
-When the Antikythera mechanism was recovered from the Mediterranean it was a single piece but it soon broke into three major parts.
-The Antikythera mechanism was not considered of importance until 75 years after its discovery.
-It was named after where it was found, an island near Greece. Located in the Aegean Sea between mainland Greece and Crete, Antikythera is an island that literally means “opposite of Kythera,” another, much larger island.
This is a picture of Jacques Cousteau getting ready to go and dive under the sea and visit the old shipwreck near Greece.
Hipparchus was the man who actually made the Antikythera mechanism and he made it between 150 – 100 BC. Hipparchus is known as an ancient astronomer; he was born in what is now Turkey around 190 BCE and worked and taught on the island of Rhodes. While many of its functions have been figured out, how and where it was used are still unknown.
Emily Henderson @ ELIS 