The Antikythera Mechanism – an ancient shoebox-sized device used to track the movement of the Sun, Moon and planets – followed the Greek lunar calendar, not the solar calendar used by the Egyptians as previously thought, new research reveals.
The Antikythera mechanism, found by mushroom pickers off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, was created about 2,200 years ago. The device, which contains bronze gears, has sometimes been called the world’s oldest computer.
One piece of mechanism, known as a “calendar ring”, was used to track the days of the year, with one hole per day. While the ring has been known for some time, it is only partially preserved, so it is unclear how many days it was supposed to track.
In 2020, a team led by independent researcher Chris Budiselic used new X-ray images of the device, combined with measurements and mathematical analysis, to determine that the mechanism probably did not cover a full solar calendar year, but rather 354 days, as it would. used in the lunar calendar.
On Thursday (June 27), another article in The Horological Journal found a similar result. The University of Glasgow team used statistical techniques developed for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory to detect gravitational waves – ripples in space-time produced by the collisions of massive celestial objects such as black holes. These statistical methods are sensitive enough to detect weak signals from a potentially very noisy background.
When the researchers trained a powerful statistical technique on the Antikythera mechanism, they were able to use the locations of the known holes, as well as the likely way the fragments of the mechanism fit together, to infer the number and location of the lost holes. They eventually determined that the mechanism probably had 354 or 355 holes. This meant that he probably followed the 354-day lunar calendar used in Greece at the time, rather than the 365-day calendar used in Greece. ancient egyptians.
It was thought that he could use the 365 Egyptian solar calendar because it is more accurate than the 354 day lunar calendar.
“The Glasgow team’s results provide new evidence that one of the components of the Antikythera mechanism was most likely used to track the Greek lunar year,” the researchers said declaration from the university.
The team was impressed by the device makers’ attention to detail.
“The exact location of the holes would require highly precise measuring techniques and an incredibly steady hand to punch them,” study co-author Graham Woan, professor of astrophysics at the University of Glasgow, said in a statement. “It’s a neat symmetry that we’ve adapted to the techniques we use to study the universe today to understand more about the mechanism that helped people track the heavens nearly two millennia ago.”
Andrew Thoen, co-author of the 2020 paper, praised the new research. “We are very pleased that more scientists are now accepting and validating our findings,” Thoeni told Live Science in an email.
Diomidis Spinellisa professor of software engineering at the Athens University of Economics and Business, who researched the mechanism but was not involved in any of the papers, was also impressed with the new work.
“The Antikythera Mechanism is the gift that keeps on giving,” Spinellis told Live Science in an email. “Despite heavy corrosion and many missing elements, the application of increasingly sophisticated technologies and innovative interdisciplinary analyzes continue to provide compelling insights into this remarkable artifact.”