New findings on Antikythera Mechanism

The ancient Greek script found on the Antikythera mechanism was only partially translated - up to now.

The new findings regard a doubling of the known writings on the device. Now around 95% of the script has been translated:

A team of Greek and British scientists probing the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism has managed to decipher ancient Greek inscriptions unseen for over 2,000 years, members of the project say.

"Part of the text on the machine, over 1,000 characters, had already been deciphered, but we have succeeded in doubling this total," said physician Yiannis Bitsakis, part of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from universities in Athens, Salonika and Cardiff, the Athens National Archaeological Museum and the Hewlett-Packard company.

"We have now deciphered 95 percent of the text," he told AFP...

"(The device) could calculate the position of certain stars, at least the Sun and Moon, and perhaps predict astronomical phenomena," said astrophysicist Xenophon Moussas of Athens University.

"It was probably rare, if not unique," he added...

One theory under examination is that the device was created in an academy founded by the ancient Stoic philosopher Poseidonios on the Greek island of Rhodes.

The writings of 1st-century AD Roman orator and philosopher Cicero -- himself a former student of Poseidonios -- cite a device with similarities to the Mechanism.

"Like Alexandria, Rhodes was a great centre of astronomy at the time," said Moussas. "The boat where the device was discovered could have been part of a convoy to Rome, bearing treasure looted from the island for the purpose of a triumph parade staged by Julius Caesar."

Source

Harte

Too cool! Thanks for the link!

Aw the link is dead

Ignore me. tried to mend link, failed.



[edit on 3-8-2010 by DISRAELI]

Originally posted by the_journey_in
Aw the link is dead

That stinks...I was always intrigued by this device.

The new link is

www.physorg.com...

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Thats neat. I was under the impression that it was used in conjunction with the Olympic cycles.
Truly ancient technology.

This is great news, only one thing:

What does it say?!

Greetings Everyone

I have always been fascinated by this device since I was a child. I believe that in the 70's the t.v. show (In Search Of) with Lonard Nemoy brought it into the public eye. I had no idea that it contained any script until now.

I thank you for renewing my interest in this subject.

In Love, Light and Wisdom

trinity369

Originally posted by the_journey_in
Aw the link is dead

I see the industrious and illustrious Blackmarketeer already linked to another physorg page, but here's a link to a page with all the original text contained in the one I linked in 2006 that is now dead:
Ancient Astronomy Artifact Bears Hidden Text

That page, at the bottom, states the following:

The new findings are to be discussed at an international congress (www.antikythera-mechanism.gr) scheduled to be held in Athens in November.

The site referenced above, www.antikythera-mechanism.gr..., has many articles old and new, and I would expect one of them tells us what the "new" (or newly translated) part says.

Likely it is the article about the Olympiad Cycle.

Harte

reply to post by Harte


Thanks for the update! I love this device!

This is from the last site you mentioned..

"It is a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge in antiquity," said Moussas. "The Mechanism could actually rewrite certain chapters in this area."

I am very curious as if this device being that it seemed to of used the stars if it shows that they knew of the changing of the sun within signs, over a period of time. Im wondering if it will show that the people that made this did not agree to a 'fixed' zodiac wheel but instead....a 'changing' one. I wonder if this mechanism can show that every 72 years, the Sun seems to move 1 degree through the signs..ever so slowly.

I have heard this referred to as an ancient computer; I myself have occasionally called it this. I personally think that this is an improper description of the object, it is more like a mechanical calendar.

Since we have only found one such device, thus meaning it was more than likely a one off device, the question however is this, why was it a one off device? Did the device not work properly, and the creator of the device never got around to improving upon his design? Was this a prototype and something happened to keep the creator of the device from making more of such devices? Did the creator of the device build it for a specific purpose and had need for only one of this device? Or is it just simply this was just an interesting experiment and nothing more?

It would of been nice if they found the whole device/navigator instead of just its gears. It is said this device can be compared back then to modern computers.... What have they translated?

[edit on 8/3/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


Even though they only found pieces....there are still over hundreds of inscriptions on what they found.

But agreed...to of found the entire mechanism....really would be a wow moment.

Better then nothing though I think its one of the most important finds ever.

reply to post by AlienCarnage


Maybe it was like a government black project in our times.

And because they kept it secret it was lost without many knoiwng of it.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by 8311-XHT]

reply to post by AlienCarnage


I have a feeling that whomever it was made for...had a pretty penny to offer its maker.

Originally posted by AlienCarnage
I have heard this referred to as an ancient computer; I myself have occasionally called it this. I personally think that this is an improper description of the object, it is more like a mechanical calendar.

That's right. The press always hypes everything, right?

The device is more like software than hardware. And in fact more like analogue computing than digital (if anyone here still remembers what that means.)

A computer can do a large number of different things. This device does (essentially) one thing, tells you the position of the moon (or a zodiac sign, or the sun, or some other planetary bodies) when you set it to a particular date.

There are tables in almanacs - not computer generated, that can do exactly the same things this device does.

So, no, it's not by any stretch of the imagination a "computer."

Still pretty cool though.

Originally posted by AlienCarnage
Since we have only found one such device, thus meaning it was more than likely a one off device, the question however is this, why was it a one off device?

Probably wasn't one-off.

A similar, but simpler, device was discovered before this one and was found in storage in some museum in England. Can't remember enough about it to google it up and link to it, but you can find out if you read enough about the Antikythera mechanism because the two are often compared.

Thing is, these types of things were made by hand (of course) so there really wouldn't have been any mass-production of such a complicated device.

The same technology (fine-toothed gears set in proper ratios) could have been used on thousands of different things, but there were probably not that many people that could actually make the gears.

Harte

Here's the pdf of the article about the latter translations:

'Nature' article

I only glanced through it myself but, from what I can tell, almost all of the text on the device would be best described as 'labels' that told what each setting or part was for. So, apparently, there's no 'big speech' written on it that says this was made by aliens or the people of Atlantis or anything of the like. I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will be awful disappointed.

The article also goes into detail about the calendrical and astronomical systems the device was based in.


[edit on 8/5/2010 by Mad Simian]

Thanks for bringing this back to "life", Harte!

I think what this device shows, above all else, is that ancient Greeks were not only about the "philosophy" of things but were also hands on, applied technology based on scientific predictions (astronomy was well established for over 2 millennia by that time, the scientific part of it seems to be well underway too with predictions that were correct and accurate).

Maybe it was a project that was never too widespread because of Roman "interference"? Maybe its creator was enslaved, or killed, and the "spoils" were on the way to Rome when the ship sunk? Or, as someone else said above, maybe it was too damned expensive to make more of them (surely, navigators would love to have one but could they afford one?).

Like Heron's steam engine, a glimpse to a technology we thought to be rather "modern" and not 2000 years old - as an application!

okay i am totally hooked whaty the hell did they find we all know its amazing contraption athousand years ahead of whta we presume but the library of aleaxandria is gone and with it two tousand years of knowledge that s from jesusu till now as comparison think of it we are in outer space . think where we would be with the library of knowledge??????????????????