Fact Finder - History

Recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Greece in 1901, the Antikythera Mechanism is a complex bronze device consisting of over 30 interlocking gears. X-ray analysis has revealed that it was an analog computer used to predict astronomical positions, eclipses, and even the timing of the Olympic Games. The level of mechanical sophistication in the device was so advanced that nothing similar appeared again in history for over 1,000 years, until the development of mechanical clocks in medieval Europe. It proves that ancient Greek scientists had a far deeper understanding of complex gearing and mathematical astronomy than historians previously believed possible for that era.