The Inscriptions of the Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism, so named after the Greek island in whose waters it was salvaged in 1901 from a shipwreck datable to ca. 70–50 BCE, is a remarkable geared device that was constructed in the second or first century BCE. No device of comparable technological complexity is known until 1,000 years later. In 2005, a group of researchers known as the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP) examined the 82 fragments of this badly corroded and brittle device with two technologies called Micro-Focus X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) and Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM, now more widely known as Reflectance Transformation Imaging or RTI). These unexpectedly uncovered finely engraved inscriptions all over the Mechanism that had not been seen or deciphered for over 2,000 years. Through these new technologies, and prior work, it is now known that this ingenious device computed and displayed important celestial, calendrical, and athletic information. My book project will provide a new text, translation and commentary of all these inscriptions (which are key to understanding many of the functions of the Mechanism) as well as place this device within its wider social and historical context.