keeping clacks before the change was made to a 

 fixed dial and moving hand. 



We come finally to a piece of archaeological 

 evidence that surpasses all else. Though badly 

 preserved and little studied it might well be the 

 most important classical object ever found; entailing 

 a complete re-estimation of the technical prowess 

 of the Hellenistic Greeks. In 1901 a sunken treasure 

 ship was discovered lying ofT the island of Antikythera, 

 between Greece and Crete." Many beautiful clas- 

 sical works of statuary were recovered from it, and 

 these arc now amongst the greatest treasures of the 

 National Museum at Athens, Greece. Besides these 

 obviously desirable art relics, there came to the 

 surface some curious pieces of metal, accompanied 

 by traces of what may have been a wooden casing. 

 Two thousand years under the sea had reduced the 

 metal to a mess of corroded fragments of plates, 



'" The first definitive account of the Antikythera machine 

 was given by Perikles Rediadis in J. Svoronos, Dm Athener 

 Nationalmuseum, Athens, 1908, Textband I, pp. 43-51. 

 Since then, other photographs (mostly very poor) have ap- 

 peared, and an attempt at a reconstruction has been made 

 by Rear Admiral Jean Thcophanidis, Praklika Its Akadeniias 

 Alhenon, Athens, 1934, vol. 9, pp. 140 149 (in French). I am 

 deeply ijratefiil to the Director of the Athens National Museum, 

 M. Karouzos, for providing me with an excellent new set of 

 photos, from which figmes 6-8 are now taken. 



powdered verdigris, and still recognizable pieces of 

 gear wheels. 



If it were not for the established dates for other treas- 

 ure from this ship, especially the minor objects found, 

 and for traces of inscriptions on this metal device written 

 in letters agreeing epigraphically with the other ob- 

 jects, one would have little doubt in supposing that 

 such a complicated piece of machinery dated from 

 the 18th century, at the earliest. As it is, estimates 

 agree on ca. 65 B.C. ±10 years, and we can be sure 

 that the machine is of Hellenistic origin, possibK' from 

 Rhodes or Cos. 



The inscriptions, only partly legible, lead one to 

 believe that we are dealing with an astronomical calcu- 

 lating mechanism of some sort. This is born out by 

 the mechanical construction evident on the fragments. 

 The largest one (fig. 6) contains a multiplicity of 

 gearing involving an annular gear working epicyclic 

 gearing on a turntable, a crown wheel, and at least 

 four separate trains of smaller gears, as well as a 4- 

 spoked driving wheel. One of the smaller fragments 

 (fig. 7, bottom) contains a series of movable rings 

 which may have served to carry movable scales on 

 one of the three dials. The third fragment (fig. 7, 

 to])) h;is a pair of rings carefully engra\ed and gradu- 



Figure 6. — .'VNXiKVTHiiR.^ M.achi.ne, Largest Fr.\g- 



MENT. {Photo courtesy oj .Xational Alusium. Alliens.) 



92 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEl'M OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



