Scientists from University College London’s Antikythera Research Team have presented “a radically new model.” [for the ancient Greek astronomical calculator, the Antikythera Mechanism] that matches all the data and culminates in an elegant rendering of the ancient Greek cosmos, ” said a study published Friday in Nature
As new experimental techniques emerged, research teams have been able to explain the purpose and dynamics of the back end of the antikythera mechanism, which includes a system of solar eclipse predictions. Notably, the use of surface imaging and high-resolution X-ray tomography on the artifact, described in a 2006 study also led by Freeth, uncovered dozens of never-before-seen inscriptions useful as a user guide to the mechanism.
Now Freeth and his colleagues believe they have tackled the missing piece of the puzzle: the complicated gear that underlies the “Cosmos” screen on the front of the calculator. Virtually none of this front section survived, and “no previous reconstruction has approached the data” out there, the study said.
The new newspaper “has summarized other people’s work, tackling all the loose ends and the awkward nuances that other people simply ignored,” Wojcik said. “For example, there are certain features in the remaining pieces – holes and pillars and things like that – that people have said, ‘well, we just ignore that in our explanation. don’t know what it is so we’ll just ignore it. ”
Read more here.
Watch a 30-minute video about the history of the mechanism and the latest research and article from the UCL Antikythera Research Team.
Image: Computer model of the Cosmos display from the research team’s paper