Excerpt from
dailymail.co.uk
- This is according to Argentinian scientists who found eclipse calendar
- The calender included a solar eclipse that happened on May 12, 205 BC
- Previous radiocarbon dating analysis of had dates mechanism to 100 BC
- The study suggests the maths it uses is based on Babylonian arithmetic
- It predates other known examples of similar technology by 1,000 years
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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.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.
Earlier this year, an expedition led by the Greek government returned to the ancient shipwreck of Antikythera using the Exosuit – a state-of-the art, deep sea diving suit.
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.
