The Antikythera Mechanism, an ingenious calculator made 2,200 years ago, has inspired awe and fascination since it was found from a shipwreck near a Greek island in 1901. Generations of researchers have uncovered many mysteries about the device, which is often described as as the world’s first analog computer, although many things remain unknown.
A study published this month in The Horological Journal challenges a fundamental assumption about the mechanism that can worsen understanding of the clock’s complex form and function. But instead of using standard archeology tools, the scientists reached their conclusions by drawing on the methods of gravitational wave astronomy, a field that tunes into subtle ripples in space-time that result from cosmic disruptions.
Graham Woan, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Glasgow, and Joseph Bayley, a research associate there, said the mechanism’s calendar ring, a circular feature that survived only in fragments, once contained 354 holes, corresponding to a lunar calendar. of 354 days. This result contradicts previous research that identified the ring as a solar calendar, lined with 365 holes.
“It’s a bit of a controversial idea,” said Dr. Woan, who admitted that he and Dr. Bayley are not experts on the device. “However, the evidence is quite clear.”
If the calendar ring represented a lunar year, it would invalidate the current models of the mechanism. For this reason, some Antikythera researchers remain skeptical of the new study.
“It’s just wrong,” said Tony Freeth, an honorary professor at University College London and an expert on the Antikythera mechanism. He noted that there was already a much more accurate lunar calendar, based on the 19-year Metonic cycle, embedded in the machine.
“Why put a second lunar calendar in the mechanism when you’ve already gone to great pains to build a lunar calendar of great precision and sophistication?” said Dr. Freeth.
The Antikythera Mechanism is no stranger to controversy and speculation, in part because it was so far ahead of its time in the second century BC. , planets and constellations, while predicting eclipses and timing athletic games such as the ancient Olympics. The artifact also inspired the title “dial of fate” in the last Indiana Jones film.
For decades, researchers have looked to the calendar ring as a solution to the mathematically difficult solar year, which lasts 365.24 days. Just as leap years are built into our calendars, the holes in the ring allowed it to be manually rotated by one day every four years so it wouldn’t go off course.
The solar model was first questioned in a 2020 study by a team of researchers and enthusiasts. By analyzing X-ray images of the mechanism’s remaining holes, the study claimed to “replace the centuries-old assumption of a 365-day calendar in the Antikythera Mechanism, proposing instead that it was a 354-day lunar calendar.”
Dr. Woan and Dr. Bayley thought that the methods they were using to analyze gravitational waves could place tighter constraints on the initial number of holes.
“It’s such a well-defined and clear problem that we couldn’t resist analyzing it in the same way we would analyze an astronomical problem,” said Dr. Wow.
They took measurements of the surviving holes, including size and spacing, through their astronomical software. The results strongly favored a full ring with 354 holes.
Mike Edmunds, an emeritus professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Wales and chair of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, said there was “no apparent reason to doubt” the study’s estimate of 354 holes. However, he remained unconvinced that the mechanism maintained a redundant lunar calendar.
“The suggestion that 354 represents a lunar calendar does not seem to have any other support from within the mechanism – it is not at all clear how it would work and how it would relate to the markings on the front of the calendar ring,” Dr. said Edmunds. “But the numbering setting can perhaps tell us something about the level of precision in construction deemed necessary and used by the mechanism’s builders.”
Whatever the original nature of the calendar ring, the new study shows that the Antikythera Mechanism is not a static relic, but a dynamic puzzle with many missing pieces still to be found.
The mechanism “continues to give us new things,” said Dr. Freeth. “It is extraordinary. Year after year, we’ve found these amazing things in it.”