The Department of History and Classics is pleased to present a talk co-sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) - "The Antikythera Mechanism: Its Discovery and Interpretation" by Daryn Lehoux.
"For over 2000 years a shipwreck lay off the coast of the Greek Island of Antikythera, its hidden treasures slowly corroded by the Mediterranean. It wasn't until 1900 that sponge divers happened upon the loot, and found therein a perplexing device of remarkable engineering - though divers had no idea how truly remarkable it was at the time. The device sat in a museum for fifty years before historians began to take a serious look at it.
Known as the Antikythera mechanism and called a "clockwork computer", this small bronze instrument is unique because it precedes any machine of comparable complexity by more than a millennium.
The mechanism was built circa 200 BC, and, with over thirty gears hidden behind its dials, it is easily the most advanced technological artifact of the pre-Christian period. Regarded as the first known analog computer, the mechanism can make precise calculations based on astronomical and mathematical principles developed by the ancient Greeks. Although its builder's identity and what it was doing aboard a ship remain mysteries, scientists have worked for a century to piece together the mechanism's history." (Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/antikythera-mechanism)
All are welcome. Please join us on Thursday, March 7, 2019, 7:00 pm, at Tory Breezeway 1.