00:00Imagine this, it s, the year 1900. A group of Greek sponge divers are battling a fierce storm off the
00:08coast of the tiny island of Antikythera, seeking shelter.
00:13They stumble upon something extraordinary, a Roman era shipwreck, untouched for two millennia. As they explore the sunken vessel, they
00:22bring up statues, pottery, and a peculiar corroded lump of bronze.
00:27This unassuming artifact, initially mistaken for just another piece of wreckage, would turn out to be one of the most
00:35significant archaeological discoveries of all time.
00:38It would challenge everything we thought we knew about the ancient world. This lump of bronze was the Antikythera mechanism.
00:47For decades, it sat in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, largely ignored.
00:54It was a corroded, calcified mass, broken into 82 separate fragments. No one could have guessed the secrets hidden within
01:03its layers.
01:04It wasn't until the 1950s that a historian of science named Derek J. De Sala Price took a serious interest.
01:12He began a painstaking process of examination, using the new technology of X-rays to peer inside the corroded metal.
01:21What he saw was astonishing. Hidden from view were intricate gears, dozens of them, interlocking with the precision of a
01:30modern Swiss watch.
01:31Price published his findings in a groundbreaking 1974 article, famously calling the device a kind of ancient computer.
01:40The academic world was stunned. The prevailing view was that technology this complex, with differential gears and sophisticated interlocking systems,
01:51didn't appear until the 14th century in Europe, with the first mechanical astronomical clocks.
01:58Yet here was a device, dating back to the second century BC, that seemed to defy the known history of
02:05technology.
02:06So, what exactly was this thing? Through decades of continued research, using advanced techniques like high resolution, CT scanning and
02:17surface imaging, an international team of scientists has been piecing together the puzzle.
02:22We now know that the anti-Cathier mechanism was an incredibly sophisticated analog computer.
02:29It wasn't a computer in the sense of a laptop or a smartphone, but it was a machine designed to
02:36calculate and display astronomical information.
02:39Think of it as a mechanical cosmos in a box.
02:43The user would turn a handle on the side, and the intricate system of gears would spring to life.
02:49On the front face, a large dial with pointers showed the position of the sun and the moon against the
02:56zodiac constellations.
02:57It also indicated the phases of the moon with a beautiful half-black, half-silver ball that rotated to show
03:05the waxing and waning lunar cycle.
03:08It wasn't just tracking the obvious things. It was predicting them. But the real genius of the mechanism was revealed
03:16on the back.
03:17Here, two large spiral dials held the key to its predictive power.
03:22One spiral, the Matonic dial, laid out a 235-month calendar.
03:28A cycle that ancient astronomers used to reconcile the solar year with the lunar months.
03:34This allowed the user to predict when calendar adjustments would be needed, a crucial function for organising civil and religious
03:43life.
03:44The other spiral dial was even more remarkable.
03:48It was the Saros dial, a 223-month cycle used to predict eclipses.
03:54By tracking the positions of the sun and moon, the mechanism could forecast both solar and lunar eclipses with stunning
04:02accuracy.
04:03Little glyphs on the dial even indicated the time and characteristics of the predicted eclipse.
04:10Imagine being an ancient astronomer, able to tell your king or community not just that an eclipse was coming, but
04:19when and what it would look like.
04:21This was powerful knowledge.
04:23The mechanism also took into account the irregular orbit of the moon.
04:28The moon doesn't travel at a constant speed.
04:31It speeds up and slows down.
04:34The device's creator ingeniously used a pin and slot mechanism with one gear mounted slightly off-center to model this
04:43variable speed.
04:44This is a level of mechanical sophistication that was thought to be far beyond the capabilities of ancient engineers.
04:52Further research has uncovered even more functions.
04:56It seems the mechanism also had a dial to track the timing of the Panhellenic Games, including the Olympics.
05:04This tells us the device wasn't just for astronomers.
05:08It had a social and cultural significance, connecting the cosmic cycles with the cycles of human activity.
05:16Inscriptions painstakingly deciphered from the fragments reveal astronomical terms and even what seems to be a user's manual explaining the
05:26cosmos as understood by the Greeks.
05:28Who could have built such a masterpiece?
05:31The exact origin is still debated.
05:34The shipwreck was a Roman vessel, but the mechanism is undoubtedly Greek in origin.
05:40The language of the inscriptions is Greek and the astronomical knowledge it contains is rooted in Babylonian and Greek traditions.
05:49Many theories point to the island of Rhodes as a possible source.
05:54Rhodes was a major center for astronomy and engineering in that period.
05:59Home to the famous astronomer Hipparchus, who studied lunar motion and eclipses extensively.
06:06Another theory suggests it could have been built by followers of Archimedes in Syracuse.
06:12As Cicero mentions a similar device created by the legendary inventor, regardless of its specific creator.
06:19The Antikythera mechanism stands as a testament to a lost technological tradition.
06:26It's not just a single, miraculous invention that appeared out of nowhere.
06:30The level of craftsmanship suggests it was the product of an established school of thought.
06:36A pinnacle of a tradition of building complex mechanical devices.
06:40This raises a tantalizing question.
06:44If this one survived by a sheer accident of history, how many other incredible machines have been lost to time?
06:51The story of the Antikythera mechanism is a powerful reminder that our ancestors were not as primitive as we sometimes
07:00imagine.
07:00They possessed a deep understanding of the cosmos and the engineering skill to model it in bronze and gears.
07:08It shows us that the desire to understand our place in the universe, to predict the future and to harness
07:15the power of technology is a deeply human impulse that stretches back for millennia.
07:21The research continues to this day.
07:24Scientists are still working to create a complete digital model to understand every last gear and inscription.
07:32Each new discovery adds another layer to our appreciation of this ancient marvel.
07:38The Antikythera mechanism is more than just an artifact.
07:41It's a message in a bottle from a forgotten world of scientific genius.
07:47A world whose brilliance we are only just beginning to fully comprehend.
07:52It forces us to reconsider the timeline of human innovation and to look at the past with a new sense
07:59of wonder and respect.
08:01Thanks so much for watching.
08:03If you found this journey into the ancient world as fascinating as I did, please hit that like button and
08:10subscribe for more deep dives into the mysteries of history.
08:15See you next time.
Comentarios