| Summary: | A lecture that attempts to explain the functional details, the operation and the purpose of useof an ancient astronomical mechanism, built about 2000 ago. The Antikythera Mechanism was found by chance, in a shipwreck, close to the small Greekisland of Antikythera, in April 1900, by sponge divers. The shipwreck was dated between 86 and 67BCE (coins from Pergamon). Later the Mechanism was stylistically dated, around the second half ofthe 2nd century B.C. (200 – 100 BCE).It was a portable (laptop-size), gearedmechanism which calculated and displayed, with goodprecision, themovement of the Sun and the Moon on the sky and the phase of the Moon for a givenepoch. It could also calculate the dates of the four-year cycle of the Olympic Games and predicteclipses!Its 30, precisely cut, gears were driven by a manifold, with which the user could select, withthe help of a pointer, any particular epoch. While doing so, several pointers were synchronouslydriven by the gears, to show the above mentioned celestial phenomena on several accurately markedspiral dials. It contained an extensive user’s manual.The exact function of the gears has finally been decoded and a large portion of the manualhas been read after 2000 years by a major new investigation, using state of the art equipment.New results concerning the construction of the spirals and the pointers will be presented andthe ability of ancient Greeks to use hard metals and cutting tools will be examined. Polynomial texture mapping (PTM) of the Mechanism Lecturer's contact info John H Seiradakis <jhs@astro.auth.gr> NB! The lecture is recorded but not webcasted, like all Academic Training lectures. Picture credits: - Antikythera1.png: Copyright National Archaeological Museum of Athens - Antikythera2.png: Credit Professor K. Efstathiou, Aristotle University - Antikythera3.png: Credit Dr. M. Anastasiou, Aristotle University - Antikythera4.png: Credit Dr. M. Anastasiou, Aristotle University.
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