Counting the Days

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More than 2,000 years ago, the Antikythera mechanism was used to predict celestial movements through a complex system of gears cast in bronze.

Hailed as the world’s oldest computer, the artifact was first discovered in 1901 at the site of a Mediterranean shipwreck and has sparked the curiosity of researchers and the public ever since.

It even inspired the creative team behind the Indiana Jones franchise to create a fictionalized version of the object in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”.

Now, two astronomers from the University of Glasgow have released a new study on the device published in the Horological Journal that focuses on the mechanism’s calendar ring.

Previously thought to be a solar calendar followed by the ancient Egyptians and marked with 365 holes, researchers Graham Woan and Joseph Bayley believe it functioned instead as a lunar calendar with in fact only 354 holes, aligning with the lunar year.

The duo employed Bayesian analysis, a statistical method relying on probability to analyze incomplete data. They examined the spacing and positions of surviving holes and fragments, concluding that the ring likely had 354 or 355 holes.

The team also employed techniques from gravitational wave astronomy, which are usually used to study cosmic phenomena, with their findings challenging the prevailing view that the ring was a solar calendar.

Andrew Thoeni, a co-author of a prior study in 2020 on the device that came to similar conclusions, praised the new research.

“We are very happy that more scholars are now accepting and validating our findings,” he told Live Science.

However, Tony Freeth, an expert on the device, disputes the study’s conclusions, countering that the mechanism already includes a precise lunar calendar, making another redundant, the New York Times wrote.

Woan acknowledged the controversial nature of their conclusion but stands by their findings.

“We hope that our findings about the Antikythera mechanism, although less supernaturally spectacular than those made by Indiana Jones, will help deepen our understanding of how this remarkable device was made and used by the Greeks,” he said in a statement.