The 2,000-Year-Old Greek Computer That Shouldn't Exist

In 1901, sponge divers pulled a lump of corroded bronze off a shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. It sat ignored in a museum for decades. When scientists finally looked inside with X-rays and CT scans, they found something that shouldn't have existed for another fourteen hundred years: a hand-cranked machine of more than thirty interlocking bronze gears that modeled the sky. The Antikythera mechanism could track the Sun and Moon, predict eclipses, show the phase of the Moon, and even count down to the ancient Olympic games. It is the oldest known analog computer on Earth - built by Greek hands over two thousand years ago. This is the documented story of what it does, who might have made it, and why nothing like it appears again for over a millennium. CHAPTERS 0:00 The machine that shouldn't exist 1:19 A wreck full of bronze 3:29 What the gears did 6:20 Predicting the heavens 9:05 The hands that built it 11:16 Lost for fourteen centuries 13:52 Still turning the question Every claim is based on documented research - the 1901 discovery, the modern X-ray and CT imaging by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (Freeth et al.), and the mainstream dating to the 2nd-1st century BC. Where fact ends and hypothesis begins, we say so. No ancient aliens, no lost super-civilization - just extraordinary human engineering. This film combines authentic photographs of the real artifact and research with clearly stylized artistic recreations of historical scenes no photograph could exist for. It contains altered/synthetic imagery. PHOTO CREDITS (Wikimedia Commons / Openverse, CC / public domain) Mechanism of Antikythera, 150-100 BC, NAMA, 191431.j - Zde (cc by-sa 4.0) Mechanism of Antikythera, 150-100 BC, NAMA, 191434.j - Zde (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera Fragment A (Back).webp - Logg Tandy (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera Fragment A (Front).webp - Logg Tandy (cc by 4.0) Antikythera Mechanism Gears & Inscriptions (28379344 - Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China (cc0) Antikythera mechanism gears right sideview, 1st-2nd - Gts-tg (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera Mechanism - National Archaeological Muse - Joyofmuseums (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera mechanism frontview, 1st-2nd century BC, - Gts-tg (cc by-sa 4.0) 0145 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Reconstructio - Giovanni Dall'Orto. (attribution) 0146 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Reconstructio - Giovanni Dall'Orto. (attribution) Antikythera mechanism back view, 1st-2nd century BC, - Gts-tg (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera mechanism clockface, 1st-2nd century BC, - Gts-tg (cc by-sa 4.0) Antikythera - rekonstruce.jpg - Moravec (cc by-sa 4.0) 41598 2021 84310 Fig1 HTML.png - Freeth, T., Higgon, D., Dacanali (cc by 4.0) 41598 2021 84310 Fig4 HTML.jpg - Freeth, T., Higgon, D., Dacanali (cc by 4.0) Ancient Greece Bronze Statue Fragments of "Antikythe - Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China (cc0) Ancient Greece Bronze Statue Head of Antikythera Phi - Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China (cc0) Ancient Greece Bronze Statue of a Youth, from Antiky - Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China (cc0) Ancient Greece Bronze Statue of a Youth, from Antiky - Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China (cc0) Presentation and sail of sponges in Symi - old diver - Szilas (public domain) 41598 2021 84310 Fig5 HTML.jpg - Freeth, T., Higgon, D., Dacanali (cc by 4.0) Music and narration created for this channel. #antikythera #ancientgreece #ancienttechnology #archaeology #history #mechanism #documentary