Antikythera mechanism discovered - May 18, 1902

On this day in 1902, the Antikythera mechanism was discovered. Learn more about the mechanism at https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/the-antikythera-mechanism.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Greetings everyone, Welcome to This Day in History Class,
where we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.
Today's May eighteen nineteen. The day was May nineteen o two.

(00:27):
Minister of Education Spitty Dawn Skies was looking through artifacts
salvage from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek
island Andy Kuithera when he found the Oni Kithra mechanism.
The mechanism, which is a two thousand year old calculating machine,
has been considered the world's oldest known analog computer. The

(00:49):
island of andy Kithera is located in a g n
C near the island of Crete. In nineteen hundred, sponge
divers in the area found the wreck of an ancient
cargo ushold that sank around the first century BC. Over
the next year, the divers dug up statues, coins, jewelry,
and other sunken treasures. They sent the artifacts to the

(01:11):
National Museum of Archaeology and Athens for cataloging and restoration,
but some of the items were largely ignored. The divers
had found a bunch of decayed bronze shards which did
not immediately capture the attention of archaeologists, but on May eighteenth,
nineteen o two, Stides realized that many of the bronze
pieces had interlocking gears that had not been observed in

(01:34):
artifacts from this era before. Those gears and dials made
it seem like the fragments had to have come from
a device for navigation or a clock. Archaeologists thought it
might have been a kind of astralaide. Others thought it
might have been the sphere of Archimedes. Some of the
archaeologists even thought the mechanism could not have been from

(01:56):
the first century BC because it appeared so advanced. The
mechanism is made of more than thirty bronze gear, wheels, dials,
and pointers, and it has inscriptions on it. After the
mechanism was discovered, research into its origins and purpose was
basically sidelined, but it was later found that the device

(02:16):
was really old, dated to somewhere around eight b c
E initially and later positive that it could be decades older.
In the nineteen fifties, science historian Derek J. Dessola Price
suggested that the mechanism was used to predict the position
of the planets and stars based on the month. He
said it was like a modern and a lot computer.

(02:39):
In nineteen seventy one, Price and a Greek radiographer took
the first X rays of the mechanism, and three years
later Price published a monograph based on his research titled
Gears from the Greeks. Studies have also said the mechanism
could determine the phases of the moon, adjust the calendar,
predicts solar and lunar eclipses, and determine the dates of

(03:00):
the ancient Olympic Games. Some researchers say that the mechanism
was used to teach astronomy to people who did not
know much about it, but research into what the Andi
Kitha mechanism did and how it operated is ongoing. Questions
that remain are who used it, how exactly it was used,
who built it, and whether there are other mechanisms out

(03:22):
there like it today. The Andi Kitha Mechanism is housed
at the National Archaeological Museum and Athens, where displays detail
the mechanisms proposed appearance and function. I'm Eve Jeff Coot,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn more
about the Andi Kitha mechanism. You can listen to this

(03:44):
stuff you missed in History class episode about it, titled
the Andti Keithera Mechanism. An additional note on the dating
in this episode, May eight teens is the day that
this happened on the Julian calendar, and it's also been
said the actual day of the discovery could have been
made twentie on the Julian calendar, which Greece was still

(04:05):
using at the time, and that would have been June
second on the Gregorian calendar. There has also been confusion
over who actually discovered the mechanism. Based on contemporary sources,
it seems like spyro Did was the first to notice
the mechanisms fragments, though he could have collaborated with Valarios,
who was an archaeologist on the discovery. You can learn

(04:27):
more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram at t d i HC Podcast. Thanks for showing up.
We'll meet here again tomorrow.