This is seriously fun stuff. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56377567 What's left of the original mechanism was found off an island in Greece, and has been dated c. late 3rd -1st c. BCE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism I remember hearing about this as a kid; it's fantastic that archaeologists and paleoengineers have gotten this far in figuring out how it actually worked. A resonant confirmation of the technological genius of which pre-industrial civilizations were capable. ...You could post ...what, anything, I guess, of any relevence, whether chronological or thematic.
That is so neat!! That has always been one of the most fascinating artifacts ever found IMO. To think that the "ancients" had technology comparable to todays? Its just incredible...
I'm sure ancient people were not idiots. The percentage of illiterate people was greater than today, but the scholars and the intellectuals, in various domains, would probably surprise us. It's a shame we don't have more documented data about the ancient world. I read about the machine in this subject, I'm very curious about what will the scientists determine about it.
As a mechanical device with levers and gears it was a complex machine to have to be manufactured by hand and not with the aid of another machine. The gearing is fantastic, so much fine craftsmanship with very rudimentary tools. One thing that seriously factors into lost knowledge is the destruction of the Alexandria Egypt library, so many ancient texts and scrolls were lost that one can only marvel at a couple of thousand years of knowledge lost because of a decline in interests and eventual destruction over time. The Mesopotamians had invented batteries that were using acid as an electrical source, the Romans had coin operating vending machines that dispensed holy water etc.
@iameatingjam, that video is Absolutely Brilliant. Thanks. I might end up looking for more of this on YouTube.
The gearing of the Antikythera mechanism as found on the Wikipedia page: talk about mind-blowing like my "mood" on here
In the last 20 years there has been speculation that the Antikythera mechanism was known in ancient times as the sphere of Billaros mentioned by Strabo part of the treasure of Mithridates VI and taken by Lucullus from Sinope -- but lost at sea.
Tres cool, @ominus1. You're making me miss the one I had as a kid --my very first Greek ancient. The legibility of the reverse, before I could pretend to transliterate Greek, was a big draw. Along with the sort-of proto-gladius, especially in connection with Mithradates' career. ...How many wars were named after him?
Cistaphoric coins were found in the shipwreck “The coins”, in Ν. Κaltsas – E. Vlachogianni – P. Bouyia (eds), The Antikythera Shipwreck. The Ship, the Treasures, the Mechanism (Athens 2012), 216-226 Panagiotis Tselekas on academia.edu
