Peoples Republic of South Devon

Ancient Greek Computing

September 12th, 2008

The weekly technology column from those good people and gurus of geek at Plymouth’s Orange Crate

After researching the South Pacific island of Niue last week (if only from our office in Plymouth), I thought I’d stop off for a virtual holiday in the Greek islands on the way back. And once again I have found the source of this week’s technology article in the most unlikely of places.

Antikythera is a small island located South East of the Ionian Island of Kythira, between the Peloponnese mainland and Crete. The last national census recorded the island’s population as 44, and Antikythera hasn’t really been famous for anything since the 1st century BC when it was the base for a group of pirates. Until relatively recently…

The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient device that was discovered in 1900 in a wreck just off the coast of the small island. Dated at around 150BC, it is widely described as the first ever mechanical computer. For a long time nobody really knew what it was for, and even after a century of research there is still much debate.

What we do know is that nothing as structurally sophisticated as the mechanism was seen after this for another thousand years, and in the complexity of its workings it resembles an 18th century clock! Constructed upon theories of mathematics and astronomy, it consists of a series of dials, rings, gears, and hands which appear to have calculated a broad range of data.

By entering a date using a crank (which is now gone), the Antikythera mechanism could track the movement of the solar system and accurately predict the positions of the sun, moon, stars, and the dates of eclipses, amongst other things. Recent research has revealed that another dial even tracked the four year Olympiad cycle! To achieve this data would obviously require that the mechanism worked according to a heliocentric view of the solar system – a theory that was most definitely not widespread in 150BC….

Furthermore, the device has a series of plates attached to it that contain over 2000 characters and appear to act as an instruction manual for the user. The discovery of this had heralded the notion that the mechanism was created by a trained scientist and mechanic for use by a non-expert, possibly a navigator or traveller. But this is only one theory. Several examples of devices such as this are referred to throughout classical literature, often in connection to Archimedes, but the Antikythera mechanism is the only one still in existence.

You only have to look at the list of institutions and academics involved in the current research, as well as the large companies such as Hewlett-Packard who are supporting it, to see the international importance placed upon the Antikythera mechanism. Check out the Antikythera Research Project’s website for more information about this amazing piece of technological history.

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