THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM WAS FOUND IN A SHIPWRECK off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. It dates from two thousand years earlier. The mechanism is a bronze device that was originally mounted in a wooden box about 13 inches across. Superficially, it resembles a clock, with a complex system of 30 or more gears that once drove pointers and dials on the front and the back. Through painstaking analysis over the last century, researchers have discovered that the pointers simulate the day-by-day positions of the Sun and Moon in the zodiac according to the theories of the
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