Mystical systems
Antikythera Mechanism
Direct answer
Antikythera Mechanism: The Antikythera mechanism is a hand-driven bronze device of gear wheels, made in the Greek world about the second century BCE, that tracked the Sun, the Moon, the calendar and eclipses.
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At a glance
- Also called
- antikythera device, ancient greek computer, antikythera shipwreck, antikythera gears
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Saros Cycle, Metonic Cycle, Pseudoarchaeology, Ancient Astronauts
The Antikythera mechanism is a hand-driven bronze device of gear wheels, made in the Greek world about the second century BCE, that tracked the Sun, the Moon, the calendar and eclipses.
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What was the Antikythera mechanism used for?
The mechanism was about the size of a shoebox, in a wooden case with dials front and back. Turning a handle moved the date forward, and pointers showed where the Sun and Moon stood in the zodiac, with a small turning ball for the phase of the Moon. On the back, spiral dials followed the nineteen-year cycle that reconciles months with years, the cycle of eclipses, and the four-year round of the Greek games.
Eighty-two fragments survive, holding thirty gear wheels, the largest with over two hundred teeth. A pair of gears joined by a pin and slot even reproduced the changing speed of the Moon across the sky. It is the oldest geared machine of its kind known.
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What sets Antikythera Mechanism apart
Its gearing is finer than anything else to survive from antiquity: teeth about a millimetre and a half long, cut by hand in bronze sheet some two millimetres thick. The engraved plates carry a kind of manual, listing what each dial shows. The design sets Babylonian eclipse cycles in Greek mechanical form, so it also records a meeting of two traditions of astronomy. Nothing in it is beyond the stated knowledge of Greek writers of the time.
- Found: in a wreck off Antikythera; raised 1901, gear noticed 1902
- Made: second or early first century BCE
- Surviving parts: 82 fragments with 30 gear wheels
- Eclipse dial: the Saros cycle of 223 lunar months
- Calendar dial: the Metonic cycle of 19 years, or 235 months
- Kept at: the National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Often mistaken for something else: An astrolabe is a flat instrument for sighting and reckoning, with no train of gears; the Antikythera mechanism is a geared model driven by a handle.
The story behind Antikythera Mechanism
Sponge divers found the wreck off the island of Antikythera in 1900, and the bronze was raised in 1901; Valerios Stais noticed a gear in it in 1902. Derek de Solla Price published a study based on radiographs in 1974. From 2005 the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project used X-ray tomography and special lighting to read the engraved text and count the teeth, and published its first results in 2006. Reconstructions of the planetary display followed in 2012 and 2021.
Why Antikythera Mechanism matters
Antikythera Mechanism is a real ancient wonder that needed no outside help to explain, only patient study, which makes it the best answer to false ones.
How to read Antikythera Mechanism
Readers hold it up as the standard: a true marvel gathers measurements, readings and working models, where a false one gathers only retellings.
Antikythera Mechanism in practice: an example
A reader can watch a working replica turn and see the pointer of the Moon speed up and slow down as the real Moon does.
Where readings of Antikythera Mechanism go wrong
Antikythera Mechanism is exceptional but not out of place: Greek writers describe such devices, and its design follows the astronomy of its own time.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- antikythera mechanism meaning, antikythera device, ancient greek computer, antikythera shipwreck, antikythera gears
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What was the Antikythera mechanism used for?
To show the positions of the Sun and Moon, the phase of the Moon, the dates of likely eclipses and the cycles of the calendar and the games. It was probably a showpiece or a teaching device as much as a working tool.
How old is the Antikythera mechanism?
It was made in the second or early first century BCE and lost in a shipwreck about 60 BCE. The ship was carrying bronze and marble statues and other luxury goods, probably toward Italy.
Who made the Antikythera mechanism?
The maker is unknown. Suggestions include a workshop on Rhodes or one in the tradition of Archimedes of Syracuse, and the month names on one dial point to a city with Corinthian links. None of these is settled.
