Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

Special issue of Almagest: THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM

Almagest International Journal for the History of Scientific Ideas Volume 7/1 (2016)

319 p., ref. 04010366, € 33 (excl. VAT and shipping costs)

ten-year project to decipher inscriptions on the ancient Greek “Antikythera mechanism” A has revealed new functions. Until now, scholars have focused on decoding the sophisticated array of gearwheels inside the 2000-year-old artifact. The new publication in the journal “Almagest” tackles instead the lettering squeezed onto every available surface. “It’s like discovering a whole new manuscript,” says Mike Edmunds, emeritus professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University, U.K., who edited the special issue of Almagest.

The mechanism was found on an ancient shipwreck by sponge divers in 1901. The ship sank close to the island of Antikythera in the first century BC, loaded with Greek treasure. Among gorgeous statues and jewelry retrieved by the divers was a collection of battered bronze pieces, with traces of gearwheels, dials and pointers that stunned scholars.

The squashed, crumbling fragments are so corroded that barely any metal remains, and it has taken a century of study—most recently by an international collaboration known as the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP)—to reconstruct the mystery device. Scholars now agree that it was a mechanical calculator, used to replicate in miniature the motions of the heavens.

It originally took the form of gearwheels in a wooden case, similar to a mantelpiece clock, with a handle that the user turned to move forwards and backwards in time. Instead of hours and minutes, pointers on the large front dial traced the movements of the sun, moon and planets through the sky. Two spiral dials on the back functioned as a calendar and predicted eclipses.

The spaces around the dials were filled with engraved text. AMRP researchers have now completed their efforts to read around 3400 characters on the surviving surfaces. Lead author Alexander Jones, a classicist at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York, estimates that the original mechanism probably held up to 20000 characters. The letters are tiny—about a millimeter tall—and often hidden beneath the surface of the corroded fragments. Jones and his colleagues used CT scans to reveal new sections of text and update previous readings. “We’ve made a big jump in terms of the quality of the inscriptions and their intelligibility,” says Jones.

Text fixed above and below the front central dial describes the risings and settings of star constellations at various dates throughout the year. Jones and colleagues now show that this star calendar, or “parapegma,” was more extensive than thought, listing at least 42 events, and that it also included solar events such as solstices and equinoxes. The researchers used these new dates to estimate more accurately the likely location of the astronomer who compiled the parapegma. They match a latitude of around 35 degrees. That rules out Egypt or northern Greece, but is perfect for the Aegean island of Rhodes, where Jones believes the mechanism was most likely made, possibly for a buyer in northwest Greece. He has also identified handwriting from at least two different people, suggesting the device was made in the context of a workshop or family business, rather than by a lone mechanic.

The researchers have also gleaned new details from the text on the back face of the mechanism, which describes upcoming eclipses. They were surprised to find references to the color and size of each eclipse, as well as the expected winds during each event.

Text on bronze plates found at the front and back of the mechanism provides further information about its functions. The front plate ends a long-running argument among Antikythera researchers by confirming that the planets were modeled using mathematical cycles accurate to within one degree in 500 years, something that would have required complex chains of gearwheels. Meanwhile a back plate previously described as a “user manual” in fact contains no instructions. Instead, says Jones, it’s more like a picture caption or exhibit label. “It doesn’t help the operator to run the thing but it describes what the viewer is seeing.” The text assumes knowledge of astronomical cycles, suggesting the intended audience was well educated.

Contacts: Almagest editor: Efthymios Nicolaidis, [email protected] Author: Yanis Bitsakis, [email protected]

Links: Almagest issue: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=ON-M1-F1-04010366-1 and http://www.hpdst.gr/publications/almagest/issues/7-1 Illustrations from the issue and model of the Antikythera mechanism: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fthtq03gppwg6h2/AABT6QtQgSiFmwq52tEto078a?dl=0 (captions and mandatory credits in file within the folder)

Project website: http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr Video about the Antikythera mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpLcnAIpVRA The Almagest issue was realized with the support of Hublot manufacture in Switzerland, which also supports Antikythera exhibitions around the world and the “Return to Antikythera” diving expedition: http://antikythera.whoi.edu http://www.hublot.com/antikythera

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