The Antikythera Mechanism on TAC and About.com

A new video featured on The Archaeology Channel this week is on the recent studies of the Antikythera Mechanism, a fascinating device from a 1st century BC shipwreck discovered off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.

Reconstruction of the Olympiad Dial on the Antikythera Mechanism. Photo by ©2008 Tony Freeth

Among the fabulous artifacts and statuaries discovered in the hold of the ship was a mysterious lump of thin, fused bronze plates---what is now recognized as a complex of gears used to compute phases of the moon and movements of the stars.

Investigations of the Antikythera Mechanism have been conducted by several sets of researchers over the past century, most recently by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Each of these sets of investigations have hinged on the close examination of the gears, and as technology has improved, researchers get better and better images, revealing how complex the mechanism was.

The video has interviews with several of the researchers involved in the current studies, as well as others who have worked on it in the past. Last summer, the AMRP were kind enough to send along some photos for me to use, so a photo essay here is also available.

• TAC: The Antikythera Mechanism Time: 14:18
• The Antikythera Mechanism: A Photo Essay
• The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project