New Light on the Antikythera Mechanism
In a paper to be published July 31, 2008 in the journal Nature, project members of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project report on the latest discoveries about the writing on the dials and plates of the remarkable astronomical tool, the Antikythera Mechanism.The Antikythera Mechanism is a curious mass of corroded metal, thin flat round bronze plates and gears with triangular teeth, marked with Greek letters and symbols. It was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera, within the remains of a shipwreck sunk ca. 50-80 BC.
Since the 1970s, various imaging techniques beginning with x-rays have been used to identify the gear configuration and reconstruct a working model. Beginning in 2005, the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project ramped up the imaging process, and they report today that they've been able to read the writing on the plates and dials. Among the things they've discovered is a dial on the back which is explicitly for tracking the Olympic games, illustrated in the computer reconstruction above.
