Antikythera Device: The World's First Computer?

The Antikythera mechanism on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Credit: Flickr

For more than 2,000 years, what might possibly be the world's first computer lay submerged off the Greek island of Antikythera's treacherous coast. Buried deep under the weight of the sand, water and the wreck of the ship that once carried it, the mysterious Antikythera device remained hidden until discovered in 1900 by a group of fisherman who were diving for their dinners.

From a distance the fragments resemble nothing more than rocks covered in mold. However, upon closer inspection this perception changes dramatically. Obscured by corrosion, there are traces of what appear to be modern technology crammed inside: gears with neat, precise triangular teeth resembling those found inside a clock, and a ring divided into degrees. Nothing like this has ever been found before in history. “Nothing as sophisticated, or even close, appears again for more than a thousand years,” writes Jo Marchant for Smithsonian.

The Antikythera device has been estimated to have been created between 200 and 70 BCE. In the last 50 years, there have been numerous X-Ray and CT scans of the various fragments found and it has been determined that the device was able to precisely replicate the motions of the heavens.

A modern reconstruction of the Antikythera device.
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images

Based on bits of wood found on the fragments, it is assumed the Antikythera device was housed in a wooden case similar in size to a mantle clock. We now know that the clock-sized device contained an impressive collection of some 30 interlocking, spinning gears connected to various clock hands which, instead of hours and minutes, displayed celestial time: one for each of the five planets visible to the naked eye—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, one hand for the Moon and one for the Sun. Phases of the Moon were shown by a rotating black and silver ball. Inscriptions explained which stars rose and set on any particular date. Two dial systems existed on the back of the case, each with a pin that followed its own spiral groove, like the needle on a record player. One of these dials showed the timing of lunar and solar eclipses. The other was a calendar. The device was even capable of tracking the schedule of the Olympics with amazing accuracy. (I guess even the ancient Greeks didn't want to miss the Figure Skating finals.)

Text inscribed on parts of the Antikythera device was revealed by researchers in the 2000s to be a kind of an instruction manual detailing its many uses. The text was written in ancient Greek but in a tiny typeface.

Who exactly used the Antikythera device, no one is sure. Was it built by scientists to aid their calculations? Or possibly used as a teaching tool to demonstrate to students the math that held the cosmos together? Is this device the only one of its kind? Or are there more similar devices buried deep in the ocean or other depths?

The creation and assembly of the Antikythera remains another mystery. Even today, it is unknown how the ancient Greeks accomplished this feat.