century BC off the coast of the tiny island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete (map 14). The ship
had been transporting luxury goods from Greece to Rome. Among the finds, which included magnificent
marble and bronze sculptures from the Hellenistic Period (figure 83), were the encrusted remains of a
curious device (figure 74) that appeared to consist of more than two dozen bronze gears that somehow
operated inside a wooden box the size of a bulky laptop computer. The Antikythera Mechanism, as the
device has come to be called, has been the object of intense scientific scrutiny for more than a century. In
recent years, surface imaging and high-resolution X-ray tomography have revealed new features that have
enabled scholars to conclude that the Mechanism is a remarkably precise device designed to predict lunar
and solar eclipses, the positions of the planets, and even the irregularities of the moon’s movement. The
Mechanism is labeled with inscriptions giving the names of months, which, as we have seen, were not
uniform throughout the Greek world. This has allowed scholars to narrow down the designer of the
device to someone living in Corinth or in one of the Greek cities settled by Corinth. The greatest
mathematician of antiquity was Archimedes of Syracuse, a city founded by Corinthians in the eighth
century, and it has been plausibly suggested that the complexity of the calculations needed to construct the
Mechanism point to Archimedes’ likely involvement.
Figure 74 Digital radiograph of the Antikythera Mechanism. Source: © 2005 Antikythera Mechanism
Research Project.