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The Object That Shouldn’t Exist
It’s the one thing that shouldn’t exist.
In 1901, a team of divers explored one of the ancient shipwrecks off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera and found something they would not have expected.
It appeared as though the object was a badly broken block of bronze.
Initially, it didn’t look like anything special.
The artifact was underwater for about 2000 years and was corroded.
However, when it was studied more closely, something peculiar was observed.
The gears, which were inside the bronze, were gears.
Lots of them.
The object was dubbed the “Antikythera mechanism,” and researchers eventually realized that it was much more sophisticated than a plain old, ancient instrument.
It had a network of interlocking gears which could be used to mark astronomical cycles.
It may be useful to forecast the movement of heavenly bodies in relation to the Sun and Moon.
In some versions of the story, the ancient Greeks seem to have constructed a modern computer.
That isn’t quite accurate.
