Scientists from University College London’s Anticithera research team have come up with a “radically new model” [for the ancient Greek astronomical calculator, the Antikythera Mechanism] Which matches all the data and ends in a grand display of the ancient Greek cosmos, “according to a study published on Friday Nature.
After the emergence of new experimental techniques, research teams will be able to explain the purpose and dynamics of the anterior face of the anticathera mechanism, including an eclipse prediction system. Specifically, the use of surface imaging and high-resolution X-ray tomography on the artifact described in a 2006 study led by Freith, revealing previously unseen inscriptions that are similar to the user’s guide to the auxiliary method.
Now, Freith and his colleagues believe they have solved the missing part of the puzzle: the complex gearwork that contains the “cosmos” display at the front of the calculator. According to the study, nothing really survived from this front, and “no previous reconstruction data came close to matching”, the study said.
The new paper “synthesizes other people’s work, and deals with all the loose ends and uncomfortable noises that others have simply ignored,” Wojciech said. “Survival bits, for example, have some features – holes and piles and things like that – that people have said: ‘Well, we’ll ignore it in our explanation. It must be used but we don’t don’ He doesn’t know what it is so We will ignore it. ‘”
Read more here.
Watch a 30-minute video on the history of the mechanism and the latest research and paper from the UCL Anticithera research team.
Image: A computer model of the cosmos is displayed from the research team’s paper
