Contact:
Dr. Matteo Valleriani
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Boltzmannstr.
22
14195 Berlin
Germany
Content Research:
Regina Servos
Where was the Antikythera Mechanism found?
It is thought that the Mechanism was probably built during
the second half of the 2nd century BCE, as part of the
tradition of “Sphairopoiia” (spheremaking), possibly
originated by Archimedes. Starting with Apollonios of Perga
(3rd - 2nd Century
BCE), Hipparchos of Nicaea (2nd
Century BCE)
and their contemporaries, astronomical theory had progressed
far enough to make it possible to design a mechanism that
represented the movement of the “wanderer stars” (the
planets) and the variable motion of the Moon (the first
anomaly).
Poseidonios of Rhodes had been considered as a possible designer of the Mechanism. Both Hipparchos and Poseidonios were active in Rhodes and this pointed to Rhodes or to the nearby Ionian coasts as the possible birthplace of the Mechanism. Much of the cargo of the Antikythera ship also points to the same region. But the Metonic calendar and the month names point to months that could originate from Corinth itself or from one of its colonies like Tauromenium, founded by Syracusians.
Could a tradition originating with Archimedes have survived, which integrated into sphere making the epicycles or the equants and so permitted the explanation of the variation of the apparent velocity of heavenly bodies?
(Click on the picture to view a detailed map! Pictures taken from: de Price, Derek Solla J. (1974). Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism — A calendar computer from ca. 80 BC. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 64 (7):6.)