Part 1 - Part 3 - Part 4
In the second part, we will try, on the basis of the AMRP scientific reports, to answer the questions of “humanitarians”: who, where and when created the Antikythera mechanism? To whom and where was he taken on a gigantic merchant ship, nicknamed the "Titanic of Antiquity"?
The AMRP project was established in 2005. Recently, the efforts of researchers - historians, philologists, engineers, astronomers from different countries - have been focused on deciphering the signs that are dotted with bronze fragments of an ancient device. The researchers reported on progress in decoding and interpretation of the text first of all.
The news is good and sad at the same time: by 2016, over eleven years of research, scientists have brought the number of deciphered signs to almost 3500. “Now we have a text that can finally be read like ordinary Greek. What happened before was more like trying to hear the radio transmission through the interference, said Alexander Jones, a professor at New York University, a history of exact sciences and one of the leading researchers of the AMRP project.
Unfortunately, 3,500 characters are almost all that are on the surviving parts of the mechanism (researchers believe that the full text contained four times as many characters). The diagram from Alexander Jones' report clearly shows that the 82 available fragments in aggregate do not represent even a quarter of the original mechanism. It is amazing how much information the researchers have been able to extract from the tiny pieces of this puzzle.
Diagram of surviving and missing parts of the Antikythera mechanism
Now all hope is for underwater archaeologists: unless they find new fragments in the coming years, the AMRP project will have nothing to work with. Underwater excavations at the Antikythera ship wreck resumed in 2012, but so far no new mechanism detail has been found. But the results of the excavations as a whole easily draw on a "parallel" sensation: in 2014, a second ship was discovered off the coast of Antikythera, lying 150 meters south of the Antikythera ship carrying the mechanism.
Promotional video:
Studies from 2015 and 2016 suggest that the ships "knew each other": perhaps they walked together along the route and sank together during a storm. We will talk about underwater excavations and new finds a little later, in the third part of the article.
Interpretation of decrypted texts
The main technology used for reading labels from "unreadable" surfaces - PTM (Polynomial Texture Mapping) - we briefly described in the first part. The state-of-the-art equipment certainly makes life easier for scientists, but it does not solve all problems.
The photographs give a distorted picture of the size of the Antikythera Mechanism - it seems quite large. In fact, the device was placed in a wooden case no larger than a shoebox (the case did not survive, but tiny particles of wood were found among the corroded bronze parts). It is enough to correlate the number of inscriptions with the dimensions of the mechanism in order to understand the main difficulty of working with the text: even ultra-modern technologies hardly "read" tiny letters 1 to 2 mm high on uneven surfaces. I had to scan more and study the hundreds of images taken longer.
Fragment of text on the Antikythera mechanism, before processing the RTM
The same piece of text after processing RTM
Alexander Jones believes that such miniature and carefully executed inscriptions are very atypical for their time. Coins are the only objects on which signs of this size are found. Hence the assumption: the engraving of the text on the surfaces of the mechanism could have been performed by a master of minting coins.
As early as the 1950s, epigraphy specialists began to study inscriptions. Since then, the official dating of the mechanism has only been based on their findings. The first analysis, carried out in the 1970s, dated the creation of the movement to 87 BC. According to the latest data, the style of the letters (for example, unequal "legs" for the letter Π or non-parallel sticks for Σ) corresponds to the period between 150 and 100 BC.
Sometimes there is a feeling that representatives of the exact sciences treat the conclusions of the humanities from epigraphy with a slight distrust - engineers and physicists need more material proof. However, in their absence, the dating of the Antikythera Mechanism is still based on circumstantial data provided by the humanities - mostly historians and philologists.
Nevertheless, at the June AMRP press conference, a new, very interesting conclusion was made by epigraphy experts: they found that the inscriptions on the mechanism were made by at least two different people. In other words, experts identified two different handwritings. This indicates that the Antikythera mechanism was not made by one ingenious craftsman, but by the efforts of a small workshop.
Such a discovery is already a reason for far-reaching assumptions. They were enthusiastically presented by astrophysicist Mike Edmunds, one of the AMRP leaders. He suggested that the workshop where the mechanism was made could be a family business. And such an enterprise has likely existed for generations, if not centuries. The workmanship of the mechanism is such that one senses in it, in the words of Edmunds, "a long tradition, which is clearly older than the device itself."
However, the possibility remains that the mechanism was created by one person. In that case, he "had great technical skills, was well versed in astronomy, and, moreover, was an excellent businessman, because he knew who this thing could be sold to," joked Mike Edmunds.
All available data, direct and indirect, indicate that the Antikythera mechanism - "a unique mysterious device ahead of its time" - at one time was just neither mysterious nor unique. And this, according to scientists, is fantastically cool - “we had no idea that the ancient Greeks were capable of such a thing,” someone said at a press conference.
Alexander Jones put it more scientifically: “We continue to receive extremely valuable information from the deciphered fragments. After all, we know very little about the state of Greek astronomy at the time when the Antikythera Mechanism and its texts were created, and we know practically nothing about the technologies of that time - except for the one that formed the basis of the mechanism. Therefore, any information is of great importance to us."
This brings us back to the pressing questions: who, where and when created the Antikythera Mechanism? To whom and where was he taken on a gigantic merchant ship, nicknamed the "Titanic of Antiquity"?
What does Syracuse have to do with it
There are no exact answers, there are reasonable assumptions. And that's not all questions. There is reason to believe that the mechanism was created in Rhodes, and it was transported, possibly, to Syracuse (Sicily). Or maybe not. Determining the exact time of the creation of the mechanism is of key importance - the political and economic situation in the Mediterranean was constantly changing due to the very vigorous expansion of the Roman Republic. We will try to explain how all this is interconnected and why the work of scientists has turned into literary readings and detective investigation with many circumstantial evidence.
Archaeologists have quite accurately established the time of the wreck of the "Antikythera ship": the ship sank between 70 and 60 years BC, plus or minus 5 years. However, many signs indicate that the mechanism was made earlier - but how much earlier, one can only guess. The official museum dating, based on an epigraphic analysis of the text, is the second half of the 2nd century BC.
The answer could have been suggested by other artifacts discovered at the crash site, and the ship itself turned out to be very "talking" - but the information turned out to be too much and it was rather motley. It is known that the Antikythera Ship was a Roman merchant ship. The material is elm wood: the Romans often used elm in shipbuilding. They tried to find out the time of construction of the ship using radiocarbon analysis of wood, but the result showed a too wide time period: 211-40 BC, accuracy 85%.
The most ancient part of the cargo was bronze statues - they were created in the IV-III centuries BC. Now these are priceless works of art, and the Romans treated bronze splendor with less reverence: useful metal was often sent to be melted down, having previously broken the figures into pieces so that they did not take up much space.
From left to right: 1) "Head of a Philosopher", III century BC. Photo: namuseum.gr 2) A fragment of a life-size bronze statue. Photo: namuseum.gr 3) "Antikythera Ephebe", IV century BC. The height of the statue is 194 cm, assembled from fragments
Life-size (and exaggerated) bronze statues have been found in debris. If they were smashed on purpose, then it is not clear why many entire marble statues were transported on the same ship - they, according to some researchers, are only copies created in the 1st century BC from more ancient originals. The profile of a potential buyer of the cargo has not yet emerged.
The discovered pottery dates back to the first half of the 1st century BC. About a hundred bronze and silver coins found at the crash site did not help much: they range from 250 to 60 BC. The geographical spread of banknotes is no less impressive - from Sicily in the west to Asia Minor in the east.
The "freshest" coins that were on the ship shortly before the wreck were minted in Pergamum between 86 and 67 BC. and at Ephesus between 70 and 60 BC. Both cities were located on the territory of modern Turkey. The last person to find money at the bottom of the Aegean Sea near Antikythera was Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1976.
Silver tetradrachms from Pergamum, discovered by Jacques Cousteau in 1976 at the wreck of the Antikythera ship
The dating and origin of the artifacts prompted scientists that the question can be approached from the other side, namely, to try to restore the route of a merchant ship.
For a long time it was believed that the ship was sailing from the east, from the shores of modern Turkey, to the west - possibly to Rome with its wealthy customers. The origin of coins and ceramics hinted at a possible route: the ship left Pergamum, entered Ephesus (coins), then to the island of Rhodes (many of the amphorae found are typical of Rhodian ceramics), from where the ship loaded with valuable belongings headed west - otherwise it ended up near Antikythera?
This theory was perfectly supported by new data from underwater excavations. Previously, it was believed that the length of the Antikythera ship was 40 meters, which is already quite a lot for an ancient floating craft. However, a couple of years ago, underwater archaeologists updated this data: after examining the crash site, they stated that the length of the ship was at least 50 meters, and the carrying capacity was at least 300 tons (how many elms were spent on its construction …).
“The largest antique vessel ever found,” the “Titanic of Antiquity” is how marine archaeologist Brendan P. Foley, one of the leaders of the underwater work, described the “Antikythera Ship”.
Excavation at the wreck of the Antikythera ship
In practice, this means that the ancient Roman "Titanic" could not accept all the harbors of that time. The ports were suitable in size in Pergamum, Ephesus and Rhodes. It all fits together. But then the “decryptors” of the Antikythera mechanism intervened: on the upper disc of the rear panel they found the names of the months corresponding to the calendar of … Corinth. There is a suspicion that at this moment Alexander Jones, the historian of science and connoisseur of ancient Greek, swore loudly. Publicly, he admitted only that the discovery "greatly puzzled".
Geographically, Corinth does not fit in any sideways into the logically built route of the Antikythera ship: "It's not at all on the wrong side!" Jones wrote. We look at the map: indeed, Corinth is located much north of Antikythera. The vessel had no reason to approach the island if the final destination of the voyage was Corinth.
Location of cities on the proposed route of the Antikythera ship
Historians tried to explain the Corinthian riddle. If the alleged dating of the Antikythera mechanism is correct (150-100 BC), then Corinth itself can be safely discounted: in 146 BC. the city was almost destroyed by the Romans and began to revive with difficulty only in 44 BC. But if so, for whom was the mechanism with a purely local calendar intended?
Historians looked closely at the former colonies of Corinth - cities and regions where, due to recent colonial dependence, the Corinthian calendar could still be used. The only city that retained its plump economic and cultural status under the Romans was Syracuse (Sicily). Syracuse, founded in the 8th century BC by immigrants from Corinth, in the 3rd century BC. passed under the rule of Rome, but the cultural community with Great Greece remained for a very long time.
The location of Syracuse corresponds to the previously put forward theory about the route and the alleged final destination of the "Antikythera ship" - from Antikythera to Sicily 700 km, but in a straight line, strictly to the west. However, another, more significant "coincidence" came to the fore: the great Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes lived in Syracuse and was killed in 212 BC.
Indirectly, everything is indirect, but it is simply impossible to ignore the appearance of Archimedes in this story. Humanitarians - historians, philologists and specialists on ancient texts - came to the rescue again. They remembered that Cicero, in his treatise "On the State" (1st century BC), mentioned Archimedes in connection with a device very similar in function to the Antikythera mechanism. All popular scientific publications that have ever written about the mechanism now like to quote the corresponding quote - we will also not be an exception:
“Although I very often heard stories about this sphere, since the glorious name of Archimedes was associated with it, I did not particularly like it; more beautiful and better known among the people was another sphere, created by the same Archimedes […]. But when Gallus began to explain to us the structure of this device with great knowledge of the matter, I came to the conclusion that the Sicilian had a talent greater than what a person can have. For Gallus said that that other, continuous sphere without voids was invented long ago and that such a sphere was first carved by Thales of Miletus, and then Eudoxus of Cnidus, according to him, a student of Plato, inscribed on it the position of the constellations and stars located in the sky; that many years later Arat, guided not by knowledge of astrology, but, so to speak, by a poetic talent, sang in verse the whole structure of the sphere and the position of the lights on it, taken by him from Eudoxus. But - said Gallus - such a sphere on which the movements of the sun, moon and five stars, called wandering and wandering, would be represented, could not be created in the form of a solid body; Archimedes' invention is amazing precisely because he invented how, with dissimilar movements, during one revolution, to preserve unequal and different paths. When Gallus set this sphere in motion, it happened that on this ball of bronze the moon replaced the sun for as many revolutions as in how many days it replaced it in the sky itself, as a result of which the same eclipse of the sun took place in the sky of the sphere … "how, in case of dissimilar movements, during one revolution, to maintain unequal and different paths. When Gallus set this sphere in motion, it happened that on this ball of bronze the moon replaced the sun for as many revolutions as in how many days it replaced it in the sky itself, as a result of which the same eclipse of the sun took place in the sky of the sphere … "how, in case of dissimilar movements, during one revolution, to maintain dissimilar and different paths. When Gallus set this sphere in motion, it happened that on this ball of bronze the moon replaced the sun for as many revolutions as in how many days it replaced it in the sky itself, as a result of which the same eclipse of the sun occurred in the sky of the sphere …"
In this short fragment, Cicero actually lists, in chronological order, those ancient Greek scientists who had not only the necessary knowledge, but also working "planetariums" that reproduced the movement of celestial bodies. If Thales of Miletus was the first, then the tradition of creating mechanisms similar to Antikythera - the tradition that Mike Edmunds spoke of - dates back to the 6th century BC.
Cicero and other ancient authors suggested what to look for. As a result, AMRP specialists found a rather long list of sources that mention similar devices. The time frame amazed researchers - from 300 BC (treatise "Mechanical Problems", the first description of rotating discs) to the 5th-6th centuries AD (the poem "Acts of Dionysus" by Nonnos of Panopolitan, description of the mechanical planetarium; letter from the historian Cassiodorus to the philosopher Boethius, description devices figuratively called "portable sky" and "mirror of nature").
Mike Edmunds drew special attention to this fact: mechanisms, in fact, similar to Antikythera, existed and improved for 800 (!) Years. If today the Antikythera mechanism seems to be a unique technical achievement of the ancients, then at the time of its creation it was not unique.
This does not make it less outstanding - modern researchers, the more they study it, the more admiration they say about its creators. It is sad that out of all the variety of devices described in the literature, only one such specimen has survived to us, and even then in the form of a pile of shapeless debris at a depth of 55 meters near the godforsaken island. The knowledge contained in these fragments was lost for 1400-1800 years …
The primary sources - the works of scientists, testifying to the level of development and spread of ancient science - have survived no better than the Antikythera mechanism: for the most part, these are fragments known in translations. However, there is something symbolic in this: a comparison of fragments of literature and fragments of the mechanism directly indicated that the Antikythera mechanism was made in Greece between 200 and 70 BC.
The device is really very complex. Its creator knew how "during dissimilar motions, during one revolution, to preserve unequal and different paths" of the Sun, Moon and five planets known at that time. He knew that the Moon moves around the Earth not in an ideal circle, but in an ellipse, and applied an ingenious technical solution to calculate elliptical motion using perfectly round gears …
It is reliably known that the necessary knowledge existed already in the III century BC, when the great geometer Apollonius of Perga revised the previous astronomical model of Eudoxus, substantiated the general theory of the ellipse, introduced epicycles and eccentrics to explain the uneven motion of the planets. All this is brilliantly implemented in the Antikythera mechanism.
The knowledge contained in the ancient device corresponds to the works of Hipparchus, who lived later than Apollonius, in the 2nd century BC. Astrophysicist Mike Edmunds is sure that the logic of the mechanism is surprisingly exactly the same as the logic of the mathematician Gemin, set out in the treatise "Introduction to Phenomena". And again Cicero, this time in his treatise On the Nature of the Gods, talks about Posidonius, the most knowledgeable philosopher of his time - what is important is that Cicero knew Posidonius personally:
“If someone brought to Scythia or Britain that ball that was recently made by our friend Posidonius, a ball whose individual revolutions reproduce what is happening in the sky with the Sun, Moon and five planets on different days and nights, then who in these barbarian countries would doubt that this ball is the product of perfect reason? „
Several researchers, independently of each other, have proposed an earlier date for the creation of the Antikythera mechanism based on the analysis of the so-called "calendar of eclipses", but more on this in the third part.
How could this knowledge, which developed over the centuries, had its authors written down, formed into operating mechanisms, could simply disappear for one and a half thousand years? This is one of the most frequent questions at AMRP press conferences (after the question about the alien origin of the Antikythera Mechanism, of course). In Europe, the last mechanical calendar using a gear train was made in Byzantium around the year 500. From Byzantium, the knowledge of the ancients in a truncated form migrated to the Arab East. In the 13th century, the astrolabe, a direct descendant of the Antikythera mechanism, was invented in Isfahan. In Western Europe, nothing of the kind appeared until the XIV century, until the Astrarium was created in Italy - a huge, not at all portable, but the first mechanism since antiquity, comparable in complexity and functions to the Antikythera. Only how to work with it and fix it, except for the author, no one knew …
Reconstruction of the Astrarium, a 14th-century mechanical planetarium lost in the 17th century
The time when the Antikythera mechanism was created, scientists have roughly determined. But where exactly? The manufacturer's signature would be very helpful, but it has not yet been found. Is it possible that the workshop was located in Syracuse, since the name of the genius of antiquity, Archimedes himself, surfaced in the history of the mechanism?
No. Syracuse remains one of the likely destination ports for the Antikythera Ship, and could have been home to a wealthy, educated buyer of the device. Recently, more and more evidence indicates that the workshop could be located on the island of Rhodes.
Firstly, it is Rhodes pottery, found in abundance at the site of the wreck of the ship carrying the mechanism. It can be considered proven that Rhodes was one of the points on the fateful route of the Antikythera ship. Secondly, a powerful scientific school that undoubtedly existed on the island. Above we have listed the names of scientists whose works are reflected in the mechanism in one way or another. So three of them - Hipparchus, Geminus and Posidonius - lived and worked in Rhodes. At different times, but the years of their lives fit into the time frame for the creation of the Antikythera mechanism, 200-70 BC.
Scientists have recently discovered two more clues, this time more tangible. The calendar of sports events - one of the functions of the Antikythera Mechanism - was calculated not only for the four great Panhellenic Games (Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean), but also for a couple of small ones that had only local significance. These are games in honor of Zeus in Dodona (northwest of mainland Greece, near the modern city of Ioannina) and games in Rhodes dedicated to Helios.
Scientists are not yet sure how to interpret the mentions of the north of Greece - Corinth, Dodona, which periodically “pop up” in the inscriptions … Both cities were destroyed by the Romans in the middle of the II century and lost their former significance for a long time. Therefore, it is so important to narrow down the dating of the Antikythera mechanism - in the first half of the 2nd century, the mention of Corinth and Dodona would have had an obvious meaning, and in the second half, after the Roman invasion, there were no longer any rich customers or family workshops in these cities. Whereas Rhodes at any time conveniently fits into the theory of the origin of the mechanism.
The last and mathematically convincing argument is one of the coordinates on which the calculations of astronomical events were made: 35 ° north latitude. Cyprus and part of Crete are located at this latitude, but no other connection of these islands with the Antikythera Mechanism has been found. But Rhodes is fully consistent with the conditions, it lies at 36 ° north latitude.
Scientists, as best they could, answered the questions - who, where and when created the Antikythera mechanism, to whom and where was it taken on the ancient Roman "Titanic"? If new fragments of the device are not found, or new hints among a handful of undeciphered characters, or the manufacturer's signature with greetings to curious descendants, we will not get more accurate answers.
Part 1 - Part 3 - Part 4