Thought to be more than 2,000 years old, the Antikythera mechanism is widely considered the first computer in history, an analog calculator that was way ahead of its time… or was it?
A new study suggests the device may simply have been an elaborate toy.
Researchers from the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina discovered that the configuration of the gears and teeth indicates the mechanism isn’t functional.
The Antikythera mechanism was thought to have been used by the ancient Greeks to calculate the movements of the Sun, Moon, and other planets, as well as eclipses. Only a fragment of it survived, but experts have been trying to imagine the rest of it since its discovery in a shipwreck in 1901.
This latest study builds on previous work by Cardiff University astrophysicist Mike Edmunds, which looked at the shape of the mechanism’s gear teeth and the manufacturing errors that may have been introduced as the mechanism was made.
“Under our assumptions, the errors identified by Edmunds exceed the tolerable limits required to prevent failures,” write the researchers.
“Consequently, either the mechanism never functioned or its actual errors were smaller than those reported by Edmunds.”
What’s new here is the way that calculations on both gear teeth and possible errors – including variations in the spacing of the teeth and evidence of variations in gear rotation – are combined together for a more comprehensive simulated model of the device.
Whereas previously there had been some indications that the mechanism may not have been entirely accurate in its celestial mapping – perhaps as much due to the limited understanding of the cosmos as the mechanism itself – here the suggestion is that the device wouldn’t really have functioned.
“Our model revealed numerous instances of gear jamming and disengagement caused by both the random and systematic distribution of the teeth,” write the researchers.
There are plenty of caveats here, and the researchers themselves admit their work is “speculative” in parts. Only fragments of the mechanism remain, fragments that were battered and eroded underwater for many centuries, so there’s a lot of educated guesswork going on.
Nevertheless, it’s enough to call into question whether the Antikythera mechanism was actually a work of genius or just an ornate decoration. Future studies will now be able to build on these findings.
“This analysis suggests that we must be cautious in assuming that our measurements of the fragments perfectly reflect their original values,” write the researchers.
“Instead, it highlights the need for further research and the possible development of more refined techniques to better understand the true accuracy and functionality of the Antikythera mechanism.”
The research has yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a journal, but is available on the preprint server arXiv.
