Fri, August 01, 2008
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhuanet)-- Archaeologists have found that 2,100-year-old bronze-and-iron Antikythera Mechanism, long known as the device to predict solar eclipses used by ancient Greeks, also reveals the timing of the Greek Olympics, according to the journal Nature Wednesday.
The Antikythera mechanism, at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, so named because it was found in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, is thought to have been made about 100 BC.
Its purpose was a mystery for more than 100 years, but in 2006, researchers used a massive X-ray tomography machine -- similar to that used to perform CT scans on humans -- to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism.
X-ray images of the mechanism's seven large and 75 small fragments reveal a dial predicting when Olympic games, which began with the first new moon after the summer solstice, should be held every four years.
Two dials on the front show the zodiac and a calendar of the days of the year that can be adjusted for leap years. Metal pointers show the positions in the zodiac of the sun, moon and five planets known in antiquity. Two spiral dials on the back show the cycles of the moon and predict eclipses.
Using more powerful computers to analyze the CT data, Tony Freeth of Images First Ltd. in London, who was a member of the research team and his colleagues, were able to decipher the names of all 12 months, as well as names identifying several Greek games.
The key to the Olympiad Dial was the discovery of the words "NEMEA," "ISTHMIA," "PYTHIA" and "OLYMPIA."
The first reference is to the Nemean Games, one of the events that were part of the four-year cycles that climaxed with the Olympics. Isthmia represented the games at Corinth, Pythia those at Delphi and Olympia the Olympics themselves.
The new findings also suggested that the mechanism's concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, on Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with Archimedes.
(Agencies)
