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Title: The Antikythera Mechanism

Subtitle: The History and Mystery of the Ancient World's Most Famous Astronomical Device

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-13-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

Discovering ancient shipwrecks hasn't been a novelty for thousands of years, but when artifacts were salvaged from a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900, the discovery of one set off one of the great mysteries of antiquity.

When sponge divers investigated the shipwreck, they found the kinds of items often associated with such discoveries, including marble statues, pottery, jewelry, and coins, but they also discovered a strange object, the likes of which nobody had ever seen before. Initially assumed to be pieces of rock, it turned out that the item, soon to be dubbed the Antikythera mechanism, consisted of dozens of pieces, many of which had gears. In fact, while scholars quickly deduced that it had an astronomical purpose, many believed the mechanism was too advanced to actually date back to antiquity.

As it turned out, of course, the Antikythera mechanism did date back to the first or second century BCE, and as scholars began to more fully comprehend its abilities, fascination over the device grew. In conjunction with the determination that the mechanism was an analog computer of sorts that could predict astronomical phenomena like the positions of stars and eclipses, conjecture over the origins of the device led to theories over what the Romans were going to do with it, and whether the device was created by the Greek genius Archimedes himself. To this day, debate continues over whether there were predecessors to the model, where the astronomical observations that went into creating the model were taken, and whether the ultimate origins of the device might even be Babylonian.

Members Reviews:

All you wanted to know and more about this artifact

This book about the Antikythera Mechanism was co-size but I'm not sure if I would use the word brief to describe this writing. I'm also not sure if I would say that this is the most famous ancient astronomical device. It probably is the most ancient astronomical device found so far but I don't think it's that famous. A Greek sponge diver by the name of Valerios Stais found the artifact, Albert Rehm was one of the first researchers to attempt to describe the find, Derek John de Solla Price was one of the first scientists to provide major insights into the artifact. Michael T. Wright a curator of mechanical engineering and a separate group led by Tony Freeth determined that this device with a combined lunar and solar calendar that could be used to predict the timing of eclipses. There is a great deal more information in this book, if you're interested in this artifact I would highly recommend that you read this book.

Good but Small

Well written short synopsis, mostly based on Jo Marchant's epic work. The text was in a very small font and hard to read. Illustrations are low resolution digital reproductions. Recommend "Decoding the Heavens" by Jo Marchant. Also "Gears From the Greeks" by Derek de Solla-Price.

Great photos of original and models

Several books on the mechanism have how it works but lack good photos of either the pieces or any of the models made, but detailed math used.