Greeks followed a celestial Olympics
A closer look at the Antikythera with a 3-D X-ray scan reveals inscriptions not visible before
By Ron Cowen
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Chalk up another Olympian feat to a mechanical gadget discovered more than a century ago in a 2,100-year-old shipwreck.
Scientists over the past decades have determined that the device was used to perform complex astronomical calculations, including the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses and the movement of the planets.
Known as the Antikythera mechanism, for the small Greek island near which sponge divers recovered it in 1901, the device is split into 82 fragments and is an agglomeration of disintegrating bronze gears and teeth, encrusted dials and hard-to-read inscriptions. Researchers have long been intrigued by both the gear teeth and inscriptions.
Using 3-D X-ray imaging to reveal more of the inscriptions on the device, researchers have now determined that the gadget charted the four-year cycle of the Olympics and the cycles of other ancient Greek games.