The Greeks built a computer
The Antikythera mechanism is a geared device from the second or first century BCE that computed calendars and the positions of the Sun and Moon.
Established2 min read
X-rays and tomography showed more than thirty gears. The front displayed the zodiac and the date. The back predicted eclipses. Inscriptions are a user manual cut into the plates.
It is a special-purpose analog computer. Hellenistic workshops could cut differential gearing precise enough to follow the Moon’s anomaly. Then the skill nearly vanishes from the record.
Caveats
- Reconstructions differ in details. The astronomical purpose and the gearing are not in serious doubt.
Sources
- 1Freeth T. et al.. Decoding the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculator Known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature 444, 2006.