Antikythera Mechanism Use

The real ancient Greek orrery that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny turns into Archimedes' Dial.

The Antikythera Mechanism is a hand-powered ancient Greek orrery built in the 2nd century BC and discovered in 1901; in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny it is Archimedes' Dial, a device that reveals time fissures. It stands as the oldest known example of an analogue computer, capable of predicting astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. Beyond celestial tracking, it monitored the four-year cycle of athletic games similar to an Olympiad. Retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, this device challenges our understanding of ancient technology, as machines with such complexity did not reappear until the 14th century in western Europe.

Quick Facts

Origin: Ancient Greece (Hellenistic Period)
Primary function: Astronomical Prediction & Calendar Calculation
Material composition: Bronze Gears and Dials
Archaeological significance: Earliest Known Analog Computer

Lore & Background

Retrieved from wreckage off Antikythera in early 1901, the device arrived as a single lump of corroded bronze and wood. It went unnoticed for two years until May 17, 1902, when Greek politician Spyridon Stais and archaeologist Valerios Stais identified a gear wheel embedded within the fragment. The German philologist Albert Rehm was the first to propose that it was an astronomical calculator. By 1951, Derek J. de Solla Price reignited interest, and in 1971, he and Charalampos Karakalos produced X-ray images of the 82 fragments. In 2005 a Cardiff University team used computer X-ray tomography to image inside the fragments; the scans suggest 35 meshing bronze gears, and the mechanism uses Hipparchus' theory for the motion of the Moon.

Reader's Guide

The device relied on astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers in the second century BC. The calendar on its Metonic Spiral is of Corinthian type, suggesting origins possibly linked to Syracuse or the school of Archimedes, though it cannot be that of Syracuse specifically. Another theory points to Pergamon, home of the Library of Pergamum, while others link it to Rhodes, home of the astronomer Hipparchus. Its astronomical events work best for latitudes of 33.3 to 37.0 degrees north, a range that includes Rhodes (35.85 to 36.50 degrees north). It contains 82 fragments, seven of which are mechanically significant, and four containing gears. Conservation efforts separated it into these pieces, now kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens alongside reconstructions.

Did You Know?

The largest gear is about 13 cm in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.
Inscriptions deciphered in 2016 revealed numbers connected with the synodic cycles of Venus and Saturn.