The rusty bronze fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s oldest computer, are 100 years older than scientists previously thought.
This is according to Argentinian researchers who found that an eclipse prediction calendar – a dial on the back of the mechanism – includes a solar eclipse that happened on May 12, 205 B.C.
Previous radiocarbon dating analysis of the remarkable mechanism had provided a later construction date of around 100 to 150 BC.
The study, by the National University of Quilmes, suggests that the process in which the computer predicts eclipses is Babylonian arithmetic, rather Greek trigonometry.
This ancient device ‘predates other known examples of similar technology by more than 1,000 years,’ according to a report by John Markoff in the New York Times.
The highly complex mechanism, made up of up to 40 bronze cogs and gears, was used in ancient times to track the cycles of the solar system.
It was recovered in 1900 from the Antikythera wreck – a Roman cargo shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera.
Scans of the mechanism in 2008 found that it may also have been used to predict eclipses, and record important events in the Greek calendar, such as the Olympic Games.
The scans also revealed the mechanism was originally housed in a rectangular wooden frame with two doors, covered in instructions for its use.
At the front was a single dial showing the Greek zodiac and an Egyptian calendar.
On the back were two further dials displaying information about lunar cycles and eclipses. The calculator would have been driven by a hand crank.
The device could track the movements of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – the only planets known at the time, the position of the sun, and the location and phases of the moon.
The researchers have been able to read all the month names on a 19-year calendar on the back of the mechanism.
Scientists have suggested that the mechanism might have been somehow linked to Archimedes, after a study found that language inscribed on the device.
The inscriptions suggested it had been manufactured in Corinth or in Syracuse, where Archimedes lived.
The device could track the movements of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – the only planets known at the time, the position of the sun, and the location and phases of the moon.
The researchers have been able to read all the month names on a 19-year calendar on the back of the mechanism.
Scientists have suggested that the mechanism might have been somehow linked to Archimedes, after a study found that language inscribed on the device.
The inscriptions suggested it had been manufactured in Corinth or in Syracuse, where Archimedes lived.
