UCL team solves Antikythera Mechanism mystery
Quote:The 2005 data revealed thousands of text characters hidden inside the fragments, unread for nearly 2000 years. Inscriptions on the back cover include a description of the cosmos display, with the planets moving on rings and indicated by marker beads. The team worked to reconstruct this display.
Two critical numbers in the X-rays of the front cover, of 462 years and 442 years, accurately represent cycles of Venus and Saturn respectively. When observed from Earth, the plants’ cycles sometimes reverse their motions against the stars. Experts must track these cycles over long time-periods to predict their positions.
PhD candidate and team member Aris Dacanalis explained that the classic astronomy of the first millennium BC originated in Babylon, but that nothing in the astronomy suggested how the ancient Greeks found the highly accurate cycles for Saturn and Venus.
Using an ancient Greek mathematical method described by the philosopher Parmenides, the team has reportedly discovered how the cycles were derived, as well as recovering the cycles of all other planets where evidence was missing.
“After considerable struggle, we managed to match the evidence in Fragments A and D to a mechanism for Venus, which exactly models its 462-year planetary period relation, with the 63-tooth gear playing a crucial role,” said PhD candidate and team member David Higgon.
Professor Freeth explained that the team then created mechanisms for all of the planets that would calculate the new advanced astronomical cycles and minimise the number of gears in the whole system, so that they would fit into the tight spaces available.