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Return to Antikythera: Divers revisit wreck where ancient computer found
Guardian UK ^ | Tuesday 2 October 2012 | Jo Marchant

Posted on 10/04/2012 5:39:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

In 1900, Greek sponge divers stumbled across "a pile of dead, naked women" on the seabed near the tiny island of Antikythera. It turned out the figures were not corpses but bronze and marble statues, part of a cargo of stolen Greek treasure that was lost when the Roman ship carrying them sank two thousand years ago on the island's treacherous rocks.

It was the first marine wreck to be studied by archaeologists, and yielded the greatest haul of ancient treasure that had ever been found. Yet the salvage project – carried out in treacherous conditions with desperately crude equipment – was never completed. So this month, armed with the latest diving technology, scientists are going back.

Between 1900 and 1901, the sponge divers retrieved a string of stunning antiquities, including weapons, jewellery, furniture and some exquisite statues. But their most famous find was a battered lump that sat unnoticed for months in the courtyard of Athens' National Archaeological Museum, before it cracked open to reveal a bundle of cogwheels, dials and inscriptions.

It has taken scientists over a hundred years to decode the inner workings of those corroded fragments, with x-ray and CT scans finally revealing a sophisticated clockwork machine used to calculate the workings of the heavens (video).

Dubbed the Antikythera mechanism, it had pointers that displayed the positions of the sun, moon and planets in the sky, as well as a star calendar, eclipse prediction dial and a timetable of athletics events including the Olympics.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: aegean; antikythera; antikytheramechanism; godsgravesglyphs; greece
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It took more than 100 years to work out from its corroded remains how the Antikythera mechanism worked. Video: New Scientist

2000-year-old computer recreated

1 posted on 10/04/2012 5:39:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv
I have long contended that the device was not part of the wreck's cargo, but rather that it was a much later invention lost at sea and which came to rest upon the ancient wreck.
2 posted on 10/04/2012 5:42:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Check out the Antikythera keyword for much more about this.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


3 posted on 10/04/2012 5:44:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: BenLurkin

Actually, I'd find that plausible as well, but modern non-invasive methods showed ancient Greek writing on the parts of the device. :') Sidebar, there's at least one scholar who regards the Phaistos Disk as a modern fake.
4 posted on 10/04/2012 5:54:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Never, ever, ever subscribe to progressivist views on history. Mankind has been sophisticated for a long, long time.


5 posted on 10/04/2012 6:03:57 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Election 2012 - America stands or falls. No more excuses. Get involved.)
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To: BenLurkin

wat methods were used to sate it?

it IS known to have been in the museum pretty much as a lump of rock for over 100 years until ‘modern’ (for 1952) X-Ray revealed that something was inside

So even it it is only 100 years old, it is pretty amazing technology

but... I would like to think someone thought of this and dated it


6 posted on 10/04/2012 6:06:41 PM PDT by Mr. K ("The only thing the World would hate more than the USA in charge is the USA NOT in charge")
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To: Mr. K

sate = date

sorry (fat fingers and poor eyesight)


7 posted on 10/04/2012 6:07:23 PM PDT by Mr. K ("The only thing the World would hate more than the USA in charge is the USA NOT in charge")
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To: SunkenCiv

Interesting!

Googled it and found this also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Similar_devices_in_ancient_literature


8 posted on 10/04/2012 6:08:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: BenLurkin

The odds of that happening would be astronomical.


9 posted on 10/04/2012 6:09:35 PM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: Mr. K

Apparently it IS ancient: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2940389/posts?page=8#8


10 posted on 10/04/2012 6:09:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Free Vulcan

“It’s [said to be] a linear progression from stupid cavemen to smart old us with our hydrogen bombs and striped toothpaste.” — John Anthony West (who also happens to be a moonbat, but anyway)


11 posted on 10/04/2012 6:17:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: BenLurkin

Thanks again!


12 posted on 10/04/2012 6:19:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Free Vulcan
During a college lecture, Robert Oppenheimer was asked: 'Was the atomic test at Alamogordo the first nuclear blast?'

Oppenheimer answered: 'Yes, in modern times.'

He Believed our atomic program was not the first, that there were ancient nuclear wars of the distant past.

Oppenheimer was a student of the old books of India, such as the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita and the Kansur.

In the Hindu texts, they speak of flying vimanas. Vimanas were said to be the origin of the 'flying carpet.'

Great wars were described in these early texts. Weapons could literally level the land like a moving force field. In ancient India, their are words for certain measurements of length. One was the length of an atom. Oppenheimer believed only a society that possessed nuclear energy would have the need for such words.

When Oppenheimer said 'I am become the destroyer of worlds,' he was quoting from these ancient books. Believe it or not, the deserts on a number of continents today that some say are the result of (prehistoric) nuclear warfare.

13 posted on 10/04/2012 6:27:41 PM PDT by KC_Lion ( Wherever I find myself standing, I forever stand with Israel.)
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To: KC_Lion

On Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, are tracks known as “wheel ruts”. These same tracks appear on the sea floor surrounding the island of Malta, but these marine “wheel ruts” have not experienced the same weathering as those on land.

These channels on the sea floor have a profile in cross-section that looks suspiciously like that of a laser cut.

Fifteen thousand years ago the sea level world-wide varied from 300 to 400 feet lower than today.

Airborne laser weapons, anyone?


14 posted on 10/04/2012 6:37:40 PM PDT by SatinDoll (NATURAL BORN CITZEN: BORN IN THE USA OF CITIZEN PARENTS.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I first read about the Antikythera mechanism when I was in high school in the 60s. It was in one of those Ripley’s Believe it or Not books.

Alexander the Great devised a method of time keeping for his troops. He would soak a piece of cloth in chemicals which would turn color as the day progressed.

It was called: Alexander’s Rag Time Band.


15 posted on 10/04/2012 6:38:43 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: yarddog

How do we know that the world we live in today reflects progress?

Perhaps it does, but perhaps we are just recovering from regress.


16 posted on 10/04/2012 6:46:58 PM PDT by KittenClaws (You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it." - Margaret Thatcher)
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To: KC_Lion

Can you give me the source of that Oppenheimer quotation?


17 posted on 10/04/2012 6:47:15 PM PDT by Reily (l)
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To: Reily
Answer to a student at Rochester University who asked whether the bomb exploded at Alamogordo was the first one to be detonated, as quoted in Doomsday, 1999 A.D. (1982) by Charles Berlitz, p. 129

Hope that helps, it is hard to find information on that without finding yourself in a UFO cult website.

18 posted on 10/04/2012 7:39:52 PM PDT by KC_Lion ( Wherever I find myself standing, I forever stand with Israel.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I love coincidences — but this is fascinating to me.

I read Decoding the Heavens —Jo Marchand’s fine book on the discovery and the 100 years to figure out what it was over 2 years ago. Orderd a copy for a friend last week from Amazon. It arrived TODAY and then I go on FR and read this. I love it when those things happen. Great read.

Thanks for posting.


19 posted on 10/04/2012 7:51:08 PM PDT by bunster
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To: KC_Lion

My husband worked at Berkeley’s Lawrence Radiation Lab when Oppenheimer was still there — although they were many levels apart, since my husband was just out of Engineering School. Edward Teller was the Director at the time. That was a really long time ago!


20 posted on 10/04/2012 7:59:13 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (Joe Biden is reported to be seeking asylum in a foreign country so he does not have to debate Ryan.)
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