Ancient technology that doesn’t look so ancient!

I came across this fascinating article about an astronomical scientific instrument – the Antikythera mechanism – that was found on an ancient Roman shipwreck near Antikythera (a Greek island in the Aegean Sea) in 1901. Since its initial discovery, it has been extensively studied and models have been reconstructed using data and images from x-rays of the original.

This Youtube video is of the most recent reproduction of the mechanism – done by Michael Wright, a museum curator in London.

The video is narrated by Jo Marchant, a science author and editor. There is more information about the Antikythera mechanism at her website www.decodingtheheavens.com.

Arthur C. Clarke (in his review of Jo Marchant’s book, Decoding the Heavens) had this to say about the mechanism

Though it is more than 2,000 years old, theAntikythera Mechanism represents a level that our technology did not match until the 18th century, and must therefore rank as one of the greatest basic mechanical inventions of all time.   –Arthur C. Clarke

How cool is that?!