The recently revealed script on the plates and dials of the Antikythera Mechanism suggest that the machine's maker was from a Corinthian city, perhaps Syracuse, the home of Archimedes.
The Metonic calendar, used as the basis for a luni-solar calendar, uses Corinthian names for the months, which suggests that the maker of the Antikythera Mechanism was a Corinthian. Corinthian colonies included Illyria and Epirus in northwestern Greece and Corcyra on Corfu.
The Corinthian capitals were at Corinth and Syracuse; Corinth was devastated by the Roman army in 146 BC; the Antikythera Mechanism is thought to have been made sometime between 150 and 100 BC. It is just possible that it was made in Corinth before the city fell, but the temptation is strong to suggest Syracuse as the home of the mechanism's maker. Syracuse was the home of Archimedes ca. 287-ca. 212 BC]. Archimedes died before the Antikythera Mechanism was made, but he was known to have created mechanical devices which illustrated theories of astronomical events.
The presence of the Olympiad--a calendar recording when the Olympic games began in Greece--is evidence that the Antikythera Mechanism was used for other than strictly astronomical observances. The Olympic Games were held every four years beginning in 776 BC. The start of the Olympic games were originally based on solstice reckonings, but this changed with the invention of the Metonic cycle about 432 BC.
Sources
Antikythera Mechanism Research Project
Freeth, T., et al. 2006 Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature 444:587-591.
Freeth, Tony, Alexander Jones, John M. Steele, and Yanis Bitsakis 2008 Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature 454614-617.
