The Antikythera Mechanism followed the Greek lunar calendar and not the Egyptian solar calendar

A new study has revealed that the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient shoebox-sized device used to track the movements of the sun, moon and planets, follows the Greek lunar calendar, not the solar calendar used by the Egyptians as previously thought.

The Antikythera Mechanism, found by sponges off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, was built about 2,200 years ago. The device, which has copper gears, is sometimes listed as the world’s oldest computer.

A piece of mechanism known as a “calendar ring” was used to keep track of the days of the year, at a rate of one hole per day. Although the ring has been known for some time, it is only partially preserved, so it is not clear how many days it was supposed to be traced.

In 2020, a team led by independent researcher Chris Podislik used new X-ray images of the device, along with measurements and mathematical analysis, to determine that the mechanism most likely spanned not a full solar calendar year but rather 354 days, suggesting a lunar calendar. .

A team from the University of Glasgow used statistical techniques developed for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory to detect gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime produced by collisions between massive celestial bodies such as black holes. These statistical methods are sensitive enough to detect faint signals from what can be a very noisy background.

Discovery

When the researchers trained the powerful statistical technique on the Antikythera Mechanism, they were able to use the position of known holes, as well as how the parts of the mechanism likely fit together, to infer the number and position of the missing holes. They eventually determined that the mechanism probably had 354 or 355 holes. This means that he may have been following the 354-day lunar calendar used in Greece at the time, rather than the 365-day calendar used by the ancient Egyptians.

“The Glasgow team’s findings provide new evidence that a component of the Antikythera Mechanism was likely used to track the Greek lunar year,” the researchers said in a university statement.

The team was impressed by the attention to detail of the device’s creators. “The precision of placing the holes required extremely precise measuring techniques and an incredibly steady hand to drill them. It’s a pure symmetry that we’ve adapted the techniques we use to study the universe today to understand more about the mechanism that helped people observe the heavens nearly two millennia ago.” He says Graham Gowan, professor of astrophysics at the University of Glasgow, is one of the leaders of the research team.

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