Archaeology & History

Antikythera divers seek mechanism remains

By T.K. Randall
August 29, 2015 ·  95 comments

The Antikythera mechanism on display at a museum. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5 Marsyas Generally considered to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time, the remarkable 2,000-year-old device is believed to be a form of early astronomical computer.

Discovered within a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, the mechanism was found alongside a number of other artefacts including coins, jewelry, pottery and statue fragments.

Now in the hope of finding more pieces of the mechanism a team of archaeologists is preparing to return to the shipwreck for the first time since bad weather thwarted their efforts last year.It has even been speculated that the ship could have been carrying not one but two separate mechanisms that were used together to help ancient seafarers predict the motion of the planets.

Whether the expedition divers will be able to find the second one however remains to be seen.

"We were shocked to discover the wreck was much larger than earlier work had indicated - 30 to 50 meters long," said expedition leader Brendan Foley.

"The hull timbers were 11cm thick. This would make the wreck bigger than the pleasure barges Caligula built for his artificial lake and they were the largest Roman era ships known."

Source: News.com.au | Comments (95)

Tags: Antikythera Mechanism