A couple of years ago we mentioned the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,100-year-old clockwork device that was recovered in 1902 from a Mediterranean shipwreck. The gizmo has baffled the boffins since the day it was found, as it represents a level of engineering expertise that nobody would have imagined to have existed in 80 B.C. (and which was not seen again until the 1700’s). It stands defiantly alone, its provenance a great and frustrating enigma.
The Mechanism has been subjected to intense scrutiny in recent years, using the latest imaging technology (of the sort that has not, so far, been found in any ancient shipwrecks), and now an English engineer has built a fully operational replica. Have a look here.
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There’s been a few more recent findings but just where I saw the stuff… well. But an interesting quick-link. Nineteen months and-just when are the Olympics happening? Oh, and it’s place of manufacture is surprising.
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/project/publications/nature-2008
Oops. Dumb JK, down. Down!
Not newer. Not 19 months. Re-hash. Down I said. Sorry.