Famed Roman shipwreck reveals more secrets (possibly more "Antikythera Mechanisms")

Famed Roman shipwreck reveals more secrets (possibly more "Antikythera Mechanisms")

Archeologists have conducted a new survey of the famed Roman shipwreck that originally gave us the Antikythera Mechanism, discovering the size of the wreck to be double what was previously discovered, and contains more of the same calcified objects that produced the geared mechanism - indicating more such mechanisms may be retrieved.

Ancient artifacts resembling the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient bronze clockwork astronomical calculator, may rest amid the larger-than-expected Roman shipwreck that yielded the device in 1901.

Marine archaeologists report they have uncovered new secrets of an ancient Roman shipwreck famed for yielding an amazingly sophisticated astronomical calculator. An international survey team says the ship is twice as long as originally thought and contains many more calcified objects amid the ship's lost cargo that hint at new discoveries.

At the Archaeological Institute of America meeting Friday in Seattle, marine archaeologist Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution, will report on the first survey of Greece's famed Antikythera island shipwreck since 1976. The ancient Roman shipwreck was lost off the Greek coast around 67 BC,filled with statues and the famed astronomical clock.

The Antikythera Mechanism:


The Antikythera Philosopher, one of several statues found in the first half of the wreck:


Another Antikythera bronze statue:


The marine archeologist conducting the new survey also has this to say:

"The ship was huge for ancient times," Foley says. "Divers a century ago just couldn't conduct this kind of survey but we were surprised when we realized how big it was."

In addition to the luxury items (bronze statues, instruments, etc.) the ship was also carrying a lot of building material such as roof tiles. One view of the wreck is that it was transporting material for building luxury villas for the Roman elite living in Greece. Romans loaded this ship with a lot of valuable cargo. It was larger than usual - perhaps they thought a bigger ship would be safer. Hopefully the new survey will uncover more of these mechanisms.

See also:
Roman Ship May Contain Additional Bronze Devices

From article......

“The (objects) may just be collections of bronze nails, but we won’t know until someone takes a look at them,

Honestly, To find two, or three of these would be an archeological breakthrough.

S&F

"The World's First Computer, Decoding The Antikythera Mechanism", by Mike Beckham - as if we weren't already awestruck by this thing...! (appropriately with Greek subtitles)

Awesome find.

I'm wondering what the bronze statue had in its right hand at one time. The positioning of his hand looks almost like he could have been holding the infamous cone we often see in Sumerian reliefs.

It's also kind of exciting to think they could possibly find something that could rival the Antikythera mechanism.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


All the years I've been here and all the threads I've seen come and go this one should have Stars and Flags all over it. To potentially find more of what they have already is just an amazing possibility.

I wait IMPATIENTLY for more details.


Well deserved bump

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


That is pretty awsome,
I'll bet we find that the ship had more that one "mechanism" aboard, and that statues and the other bronze objects came out of the same workshop, school or town craftsmanship tradition.

reply to post by SLAYER69

To potentially find more of what they have already is just an amazing possibility.

I certainly agree! We've only found just one of these marvels, and not even an entire piece, and look what a stir it has caused. It boggles the mind to think of the ingenuity of the ancient Greeks in devising the mathematics and the skills to create this handheld computer, to think there could be more down there waiting to see the light of day again is spine-tingling.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


If the ancients had supposedly not only navigated the oceans but also mapped the world in prehistory as some believe then in order to do so one would require some fairly sophisticated timepieces...


By the apparent quality of sophistication of the Antikythera Mechanism this was well within their grasps imho.

Hey members ....

Caught a us program on the box .....this is the spoils from rome's successful attack on syracruse....when Archimedes was killed.....his worksop was plundered......

apparently there is a historical reference to the roman general responsibe ......his grandson had two devices in his possession as wittnessed by some roman author at the time.......

Where did Archimedes go for his education/schooling.???????

reply to post by SLAYER69


Wood's Hole Oceanographic and Greek authorities also recently announced several recent shipwrecks that were discovered in deep water, which as WHOI says, indicates ancient Romans and Greeks did in fact sail in deep water/open seas, versus hugging coast lines. They had to have good navigation, charts, and an ability to navigate by stars for extended periods of time, as opposed to 'dead reckoning' and sailing by landmarks.

Roman shipwrecks found nearly a mile deep
Greek experts find Roman wrecks nearly a mile deep

U.S. archaeologist Brendan Foley, who was not involved in the project, said a series of ancient wrecks located far from land over the past 15 years has forced experts to reconsider the coast-hugging theory.

Although this has nothing to do with the Antikythera mechanism, which wouldn't be much help in navigating at sea.

reply to post by tri-lobe-1


Was this the video you saw?

reply to post by sonnny1


Hello sonny1...

No that was not the programe that i saw....

The show i saw was on foxtel and it conncentrated on the Antikythera device only.....

There was an English model maker from the British Museum....he, i believe had made one of the first/if not the first working example of said device...

I watched the programe just before christmas....it was advertized for a full month before showing....

very recent production.....history or nat geo....

Well whorth the watch......

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


I just hope if more 'mechanisms' are found that they are decoded and documented as fully as the Antikythera mechanism.

Part of the mechanisms mystery was its complexity and the detective hunt to make sense of it.

Fascinating stuff. S&F

maybe this was the program?

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

Although this has nothing to do with the Antikythera mechanism, which wouldn't be much help in navigating at sea.

If the Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical calculator it could have been used to plot a course in relation to the position of planets etc. They could have used it to navigate open seas and keep a steady course I think.

I would think the north star was a great help in navigation, or perhaps some form of magnetic compass? hammering steel makes it magnetic, perhaps someone in ancient times noticed a newly made steel needle always pointed to the north star? (pushed through a cork then placed in water)

reply to post by Fisherr


Wow, that was the first time i have seen
that one, thanks for posting it.
Well worth watching.

Amazing how we keep repeating our self's
throughout time..

I wonder if we will ever break the cycle.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Notice sometime how much the representations of the Phoenician trade ships look like the Caravels Columbus used. Not only had the Phoenicians mastered navigation but they had mastered the long voyage ship technology before the greeks emerged and that technology was passed down over the centuries it was so good.

Here's a working version made out of Lego:



It's always interested me that although the instructions are written in Greek, there are absolutely no other similar examples of this type of Mechanism in the Greek engineering record for over 1000 years.

It seems to me that because the mechanism used mathematics that are traditionally thought as "Greek"; historians assume it was made by the Greecians.

When we actually look at the origins of Maths as we know it today, it seems many Greek attributed theories were in fact from the Indian vedic period (trigonometry) and Babylonian/Persian/Arab scholars who later developed this work.

The Greeks were the first European society to learn the old knoweldge and after a few subsequnet tweaks by Modern Scholars in history text books; suddenly the Greeks are the fathers of all knowledge.

I call OOPART,,,in fact I think its the only proven OOPART ever discovered and is significant enough to ask the question of how far technology cvan develop locally on Earth in advance of other cultures.

If we look at today and compare the US ( The I-Phone in Space country) with Papua New Guinea I wonder how long it would take Papua New Guinea to put a man on the moon if Europe, Amercia and Asia were suddenly submerged taking all that info with them???

reply to post by Jukiodone


Bloody cracking video mate, loved it.

From what I've read the Greeks had extensive knowledge of gears and cog technology, from automated opening doors to slot machines you'd put money into to see if you got favour from the gods. Pretty impressive and the only reason it's not around to read about now I'd guess is it would have been considered top knowledge not to be given out and put in the Libary of Alexandria which of course was used as a bonfire by the romans.