GREECE: Scientists reveal secrets of an ancient Greek computer centuries ahead of its time

Record ID: 574651

  • Title: GREECE: Scientists reveal secrets of an ancient Greek computer centuries ahead of its time
  • Date: 3rd December 2006
  • Summary: (SOUDNBITE) (English) JOHN STEELE, HISTORIAN OF ASTRONOMY, DURHAM UNIVERSITY SAYING WHILE ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE: "I think we learned that they were able to transform their mathematical view of the heavens into something physical, which we didn't really know before previously we knew a lot about how they thought about the heavens and how they modelled it mathematically, geometrically, but in terms of turning it into a physical representation this the first real evidence we have of anything like that."
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: History,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA64IGPPNCI8H2PY0DSOHKZOE8G
  • Story Text: Scientists have unlocked the secrets of a two thousand year old mystery of an ancient Greek computer centuries ahead of its time.
    A team of Greek, British and American scientists, astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and philologists revealed in Athens on Thursday (November 30) that modern technology has created a breakthrough in deciphering over 2,000 inscriptions on the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2nd century BC Greek computer of gear wheels and dials that calculated astronomical movements.
    Scientists said it is the only physical evidence in existence that shows technological knowledge so advanced no other machine like it appears for another thousand years.
    The bronze mechanism with 30 gears was found by divers in an ancient cargo ship in 1901 sunken off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera, believed to be heading to Rome.
    For centuries scientists and historians studied the mechanism, the most analytical study carried out by the late British historian Derek Price from Yale University, who first coined the mechanism as an analogue computer in 1959 and reconstructed one of the most accurate models of the mechanism. But despite conducting X-ray analysis, the technology then was not advanced enough to read all the inscriptions and fully decipher the mechanisms use.
    Modern high resolution surface imaging systems and three dimensional x-ray topography from British and US companies has now allowed scientists to read twice as many inscriptions as before, uncovering new facts about its use and sophistication.
    The mechanism, a complex device of gear wheels, dials and scales, tracks the lunar and solar cycles showing the positions of the sun and moon and the phases of the moon. It did division, multiplication and subtraction and was possibly used for predicting astronomical movements in the future, said scientists.
    The new technology, based on newly seen inscriptions referring to planets, and further knowledge of the use of the dials, showed the entire working manual of the mechanism had been inscribed on the machine itself. Scientists also found it may have predicted upcoming eclipses, and the positions and movement of the planets, revealing a more complex construction ever known for its period.
    "We are sure that the user was in a position to do measurements, and perhaps even predictions for the planets, on top of the position of the moon, the phase of the moon during the months. We also discovered that it is very possible they were in a position to predict eclipses." said Xenophon Moussas, Space Physics Professor at Athens University and part of the team.
    "Its the only thing that we know existed in that day of its kind, so far as we know there is nothing as complex as this - its got 30 gear wheels remember - for a thousand years after that is known." Astrophysics Professor of Cardiff University, a member of the project team said.
    Scientists also dated the mechanism earlier than previously assumed, from 80 BC to about 140 to 100 BC, the end of the Hellenistic empire and the occupation of the Greeks by the Romans. Its creator is unknown but it is believed it may have originated in the school of the ancient astronomer Hipparchos, and may have come from Rhodes, at the peak of astronomical and mathematical study in the 2nd century BC.
    Scientists said if the Greeks had continued developing this new technology uninhibited by Roman occupation, humanity may have reached the moon earlier.
    "The ancient Greeks had technology which was inconceivable if we hadn't found this thing we couldn't have conceived that they would have had such sophisticated technology. The author and scientist Arthur C Clarke said if the ancient Greeks had the imagination to realize where this technology could lead them then we wouldn't now be puttering around on the moon we would have reached the nearest stars," said British mathematician Tony Freeth, who was part of the project team.
    Astronomy historian John Steele of Durham University, following the conference, said historically ancient Greek thoughts and ideas on astronomy were well known of the period, but the new discoveries about such an advanced mechanized instrument at the time would allow for further discussion among scientists and historians.
    Steele said the closest comparison to such a complex mechanism is a Chinese clock from the 11th century AD, which was 30 feet high. The Greek mechanism would have been about the size of a shoebox.
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