Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism -- A Calendar Computer from ca. 80 B.C., Transactions, American Philosophical Society

by Derek John de Solla Price

The first great discovery in underwater archaeology yielded not only a fine collection of art treasures but also the most enigmatic, most complicated piece of scientific machinery known from antiquity. This artifact is now identified as an astronomical or calendrical calculating device involving a very sophisticated arrangement of more than thirty gear-wheels.

Genres: History

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Antikythera mechanism has always fascinated me for its existence, and as I get older and learn more, for the archeological detective work that has gone into deciphering it. I read a recent piece in Popular Mechanics on the latest information learned from new technologies - physical and computational - applied to discovering the inner workings of a corroded and incomplete artifact. And that article references Price’s work here.

It’s a good, if detailed in minutiae read, and yes, is fascinating to me. What Price uncovered, his methods described here, his conclusions - errors in assumptions discovered after with better technologies aside - is a class in scientific method perseverance. And I like learning new words: epagomenal.

[Andreas Michaelides · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that describes with great detail and step by step of how the mechanism of Antikythera works. Also it presents the difficulties that were faced of decoding it.