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The Antikythera Mechanism: The Accidental Discovery and How it Revolutionized Our Understanding of Ancient Technology

Khalid Elhassan May 17, 2025 17 min

Antikythera - Reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism — Reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism. Research Gate

14. The Oldest Known Analog Computer

Antikythera - Derek John de Solla Price — Derek John de Solla Price. Royal Society Publishing

Professor Price proved that Valerios Stais had been right all along. The Antikythera mechanism actually was intended for astronomical calculations, and it had been made in the first century BC. The mechanism was used to predict just where in the sky the stars and planets would be located on a particular date.

Its biggest gear represented the calendar year, and it meshed with and moved smaller gears whose motions represented those of the Sun, the Moon, and various planets. In short, the mechanism was the oldest known analog computer, manufactured more than two millennia ago in the days of Cicero and Julius Caesar, and possibly even earlier.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.