The Antikythera Mechanism

In 1901 divers unearthed treasure from an ancient Roman shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. Among the findings was a remarkable little mechanical device that defied current understandings about the technological capabilities of the Ancient World.

It took over 100 years to decipher the extremely complicated device's purpose: an astronomical clock that calculated the celestial movements of planetary bodies and that could predict eclipses with incredible precision.

Ultimately this was only accomplished by the use of an enormous X-ray that created a 3-D image of the device's mechanism which allowed scientists to see its design and ascertain its function. While most scholars have marveled at the clock's technological sophistication (which does raise serious questions about our understanding of the development of human civilization) and at how they could've collected the data required to design the device (which raises similar questions) this publication believes that the most relevant question that it presents is: Why were these ancient people so interested in tracking the movements of celestial bodies and in predicting future eclipses that they would expend the energy to build such a complicated device?

Unfortunately our guesses about the importance of celestial movements is colored by our own beliefs about their importance. It must be considered, however, that to the Ancients, the movements of the planets and the dates and times of eclipses were not important for their value in determining agricultural cycles or for scheduling rituals to please the Gods, as is commonly believed. Perhaps Ancient Man recognized the influence that celestial bodies and their relative positions to Earth had on phenomena and were, therefore, very interested in being able to predict what that influence would be and when.

For an amazing video of how the clock worked, click here to see a reconstruction made out of Lego. Click here to watch more detailed videos about the discovery of the clock, its deciphering, and efforts to replicate it.

Interestingly, the ancient Greeks were not the only ones with a keen interest in astronomy. The Chinese, Mayans, Celts, and other civilizations with varying degrees of technological prowess were all very interested in the movements of in the Heavens. The question must be asked then: What have we forgotten?