Scientists recreate the mechanism of Antikythera, humanity’s oldest computer

Scientists and teachers from the University of Sonora, northwest Mexico, recreated the ‘Antikythera mechanism’, the computer oldest mechanism of humanity, which remained under the sea for more than 2,000 years and which allows predicting eclipses, calculating astronomical positions and recording the days of the year with precision.

“It is the universe of the ancient world seen from a new perspective, we are talking between 150 and 100 years before Christ with the earth at the center and the planets revolving around it, the moon is also present and there we can see that composition of what the universe was. vision of the ancient universe,” Raúl Pérez Enríquez, professor and researcher at the University of Sonora, told EFE.

The ‘Ankythera mechanism’ was discovered in 1901 by sponge divers, pioneers of underwater archaeology, at the bottom of the sea, very close to the Greek island Antikythera, which According to estimates it was created about 2,200 years ago, in the 2nd century BCand continues to fascinate researchers who study it to extract all its secrets.

Pérez Enríquez explained that the Monumental Antikythera Mechanism has the purpose of training new physicists and scientists and supporting research processes.

The original mechanism taken out in ruins, broken into pieces and surrounded by algae and corals from the bottom of the sea, It is comparable in size to a shoe box, about 34 centimeters wide, 18 centimeters deep and nine centimeters high.; The monumental replica of the University of Sonora measures more than three meters.

Dr. Julio Saucedo Morales explained the differences between the ‘Ankythera mechanism’ and the replica made in Mexico, and the original found in the Archaeological Museum of Athens.

He explained that, of the 82 fragments that make up the vestige, the largest does not exceed the size of the palm of the hand, while the largest gears are one or two centimeters.

“Here the gears are enormous, when it came to building this replica in Mexico, we took all that information regarding the number of gears, their teeth, diameters and they were sized to be up to 10 times larger, 100 times larger in volume and en masse,” he stated.

Use of technology

Professor Ezequiel Rodríguez Jauregui explained that scientists from Sonora, Mexico and Greece participated in this project, who took advantage of technologies such as X-rays and tomography to see the innards of the mechanism and recreate them, and even complete some parts that the ancients left unfinished.

“It was sunken and destroyed, With computed tomography studies it was possible to restore a large part of the mechanism, now we know that it has predictions of eclipses and Olympic games, that it was a planetarium”We also managed to read a large part of the machine manual for its operation,” he said.

In that sense, he pointed out that the University of Sonora, together with Relojes Olvera de Zacatlán de las Manzanas in Puebla and the University of Grecia, managed to recreate the mechanism, “but apart from that we achieved scaling, this is the only one on a large scale and functional.” he warned.

The mechanism exhibited in the Athens Museum continues to arouse interest among scientists.

A new study from the University of Glasgow determined, with Bayesian analysis techniques, that The mechanism had between 354 and 355 holes, which correspond to the Greek lunar calendar rather than the 365-day solar calendar of the ancient Egyptians.and which until now researchers believed was the one following.

The replica built in Mexico is open to the public, exhibited at the University of Sonora and will allow scientists from around the world to study it and extract even more secrets from humanity’s oldest computer.