Scientists may finally have created a complete digital model for the Cosmos panel of a 2,000-year-old mechanical device called the Antikythera mechanism believed to be the world’s first computer.
First discovered in a Roman-era shipwreck by Greek sponge divers in 1900, the fragments of a shoebox-sized device, once filled with gears and used to predict the movements of celestial bodies, have baffled and amazed generations of researchers ever since.
The fragments discovered constituted only a third of a larger device: a highly sophisticated hand-powered gearbox capable of accurately predicting the motions of the five planets known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the sun, the phases of the moon and the sun. and lunar eclipses – all of which represent them relative to the timing of ancient events such as the Olympics.
Related: Photos: Ancient Greek shipwreck yields Antikythera mechanism
Yet despite years of painstaking research and debate, scientists were never able to fully recreate the mechanism that powered the amazing device, or the calculations used in its design, based on the battered and corroded copper fragment found in the wreckage. was discovered.
But now, researchers at University College London say they’ve completely recreated the device’s design, from the old calculations used to create it, and are now putting together their own device to see if their design works.
“Our work reveals the Antikythera mechanism as a beautiful concept, translated through engineering excellence into a genius device,” the researchers wrote in the open access journal March 12. Scientific reports“It challenges all our preconceptions about the technological capabilities of the ancient Greeks.”
Why Recreate Antikythera?
The researchers wanted to recreate the device because of all the mystery surrounding it, as a way to get to the bottom of as many questions as possible. Moreover, no one had ever made a model of the so-called Kosmos that was consistent with all the physical evidence.
“The distance between the complexity of this device and others being created at the same time is infinite,” study co-author Adam Wojcik, a materials scientist at UCL, told Live Science. ‘To be honest, nothing like it has ever been found. It’s out of this world. ‘
The intricate gears that make up the mechanism of the device are of a scale you’d expect to find in a grandfather clock, but the only other gears discovered around the same period are the much larger gears found in things like ballistas or large ones. crossbows are processed. and catapults.
This sophistication raises many questions about the manufacturing process that could have created such a uniquely intricate device, as well as why it was discovered as the only known device of its kind on an ancient sunken ship off the island of Antikythera.
Related: The 20 Most Mysterious Shipwrecks Ever
‘What’s it doing on that ship? We only found a third; where are the other two [thirds]Are they rusted away? Has it ever worked? Wojcik said. These are questions that we can only really answer through experimental archeology. It’s like answering how they built Stonehenge, let’s grab 200 people with some rope and a big rock and try to pull it across Salisbury Plain. That’s kind of like what we’re trying to do here. ”
Making the first computer
To create the model, the researchers used all previous research on the device, including that of Michael Wright, a former curator at the London Science Museum, who had previously built a working replica. Using inscriptions found on the mechanism and a mathematical model of how the planets moved that was first conceived by the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, they were able to create a computer model for a mechanism of overlapping gears that fit into a compartment barely 1 inch deep (2.5 centimeters).
Related: Ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism came with a user manual
Their model mimics every gear and turntable to show how the planets, the sun and the moon move along the zodiac (the old map of the stars) on the front and the phases of the moon and eclipses on the back. It replicates the now outdated ancient Greek assumption that all heavens surround Soil
Now that the computer model has been created, the researchers plan to create physical versions, first using modern techniques so that they can verify that the device works, and then using the techniques that the ancient Greeks could have used.
“There is no evidence that the ancient Greeks were able to build such a thing. It’s really a mystery,” Wojcik said. “The only way to test whether they could do it is to try to build it the ancient Greek way.”
‘And there is also a lot of discussion about who it was for and who built it. Many people say it was ArchimedesWojcik said. He lived around the same time it was built, and no one else had the same level of technical prowess as he did. It was also a Roman shipwreck. Archimedes was killed by the Romans during the siege of Syracuse, after the weapons he invented failed to prevent them from taking the city.
Mysteries also remain as to whether the ancient Greeks used similar techniques to create other devices yet to be discovered, or whether copies of the antikythera mechanism are waiting to be found.
“It’s a bit like the appearance of a TARDIS in the Stone Age,” Wojcik said, referring to Doctor Who’s time-traveling spacecraft.
Originally published on Live Science.