The mysterious Antikythera mechanism, considered by some to be the world's first computer, was "put into operation" for the first time on 22 December 178 BC, as archaeologists have now found.
Discovered by sponge divers in a Roman-era shipwreck near the island of Antikythera in 1901, the elaborate ancient computer, which looks like a shoebox-sized contraption with gears and dials that have many tiny inscriptions written on them, could predict eclipses and determine when various sporting events were taking place, among other functions.
Over the years, researchers have painstakingly pieced together the many fragments of the Antikythera mechanism to understand how it was created and how it would have been used some 2,000 years ago.
There are many questions that plague scientists about the Antikythera mechanism: who built it? Who built it? Why did they create it and what was its start date? Now, a team of scientists has identified this "activation" date, detailing their findings online on March 28 in the arXiv preprint database, an online journal where research can be uploaded before peer review.
However, scientists not associated with the study disputed this claim, telling Live Science that the start date was likely 204 BC.
[BR][BR][BR][BR]Finding a start date
In their new paper, the researchers identify a number of reasons why they believe 22 December 178 BC was the start date of the mechanism, which is the oldest date on which all calculations made for the mechanism are based. It is something like absolute zero temperature on the Kelvin scale.
First, on that day there was a solar eclipse, which lasted over 12 minutes. Second, the next day, December 23, was the winter solstice, an important day for many ancient peoples. They also note that the festival of Isis - celebrating the Egyptian goddess Isis - was celebrated in both Egypt and Greece at this time. In addition, the phases of the moon began on December 22 of that year, the team wrote in their paper.
This combination of events created a "very rare coincidence" that would make for a memorable opening day, the researchers wrote. The start date "should be very distinctive, significant and easily detectable," Aristides Voulgaris, lead author of the paper and head of the Functional Reconstruction of Antikythera Mechanism-The FRAMe Project team, told Live Science.
It is possible that whoever built the Antikythera Mechanism - another unanswered question, with some experts suggesting that Archimedes was the engineer who built the mechanism - witnessed the day and remembered the cosmic events, but there is no way to be sure. "Usually, in order to make time calculations, it is more common to choose a date from the recent past than one in the future," the researchers wrote.
This start date is significant because it is the date on which all calculations using the mechanism would be based. "In order to use a measurement instrument, a reference point is required prior to the measurement process," the researchers wrote in the paper. Like a calendar that needs a fixed date - such as 1 AD - whoever used the mechanism would need a starting date on which to base all calculations.
The date is one of the mysteries about the mechanical wonder that remains to be solved. Previous research has been able to decipher many of the inscriptions and understand why many of the gears and dials were used. In 2021, a team of scientists announced the creation of a computer model of the mechanism that they believe is accurate.
Scholars react
Live Science contacted several scholars not associated with the research to get their thoughts on the team's findings. Many were unable to respond, but those who did were skeptical.
"This is not a paper that could stand up to competent peer review," Alexander Jones, a professor of the history of exact sciences in antiquity at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, said in an email. "There are many problems with it, ranging from major issues to minor ones, which are nevertheless symptoms of a lack of good grounding in the broader context of ancient astronomy and science," Jones said.
For example, Jones pointed out that this start date would place Skull, a season inscribed on the Antikythera mechanism and associated with wine, in the month of February, which "is not a particularly good month for ripe grapes," Jones said.
Two papers published in 2014 showed that the start date was 204 BC, Jones added. Those two papers showed "that the eclipse prediction sequence had been calculated for a single 223-month lunar period starting in 204 BC," Jones said. This was timed to start on 12 May 204 BC and begin and end with a lunar eclipse.
Source: newsbeast.gr
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
