Antikythera Mechanism

 Perhaps the most intriguing clock was the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000-year-old computer of Greek origin. After a careful study of the gears in 1959, Princeton science historian Derek J. de Solla Price provided the most thorough scientific analysis of the mechanism to date.

Today’s computers are programmed in digital code, a series of ones and zeros but this ancient clock had its code written into the mathematical ratios of its gears. All the user had to do was enter the main date on one gear, and through a series of subsequent gear turns, the mechanism could calculate things like the angle of the sun crossing the sky. 

In the 2000s, researchers revealed text that was a kind of instruction manual inscribed on parts of the mechanism that had never been seen before. The text was written in tiny typeface but legible as ancient Greek.

This ancient mechanism was capable of:

1 - Little stone or glass orbs on it would have moved across the machine’s face to show the motion of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter in the night sky

2 - The position of the sun and moon, relative to the 12 constellations of the zodiac

3 - Another dial forecasting solar and lunar eclipses — and, oddly, predictions about their color. (Researchers guess that different colored eclipses were considered omens of the future. The ancient Greeks were a little superstitious.)

4 - A solar calendar, charting the 365 days of the year

5 - A lunar calendar, counting a 19-year lunar cycle

6 - A tiny pearl-size ball that rotated to show you the phase of the moon

7 - Another dial of the mechanism that counted down the days to regularly scheduled sporting events around the Greek isles, like the Olympics

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