An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A unique Greek geared device, constructed around the end of the second century BC to display the movement of the Sun, the Moon, and possibly the planets around the Earth, and predict the dates of future eclipses. It measures about 32 by 16 by 10 cm and contains at least 30 interlocking gear-wheels, all of them having triangular teeth, from 15 to 223 in number. This device is one of the most stunning artefacts remained from antiquity, revealing an unexpected degree of technical creativity for the period. Nothing close to its technological sophistication appears again for well over a millennium, when astronomical clocks appear in the medieval Europe. It was discovered in 1901 in a sunken ship just off the coast of Antikythera, an island between Crete and the Greek mainland. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. After lots of study involving several research fields, a copy of the device has recently been constructed. See, e.g., Freeth et al. 2006, Nature 444, 587.

See also: Named after the Greek island in the Ionia Sea from which the fragments of the device were discovered in 1901 by sponge divers, who found a sunken Roman ship. Several pieces of evidence indicate that the Roman ship carrying the device wrecked sometime shortly after 85 BC. The ship also contained an enormous booty of bronzes, glassware, jewelry and pottery; → mechanism.