![]() ![]() Reconstructing the Cosmos at the front of the Antikythera Mechanism begins with analysing some remarkable inscriptions. What has struck us forcefully in making the present model is just how few these options are: the constraints created by the surviving evidence are stringent and very difficult to meet. The loss of evidence might suggest many options for a model. With so much missing, we ensure the integrity of our model with a strict set of Reconstruction Principles (Supplementary Discussion S1) and we assess the strength of data that validates each element-discussed in Supplementary Discussion S1. The result is a radical new model that matches all the data and culminates in an elegant display of the ancient Greek Cosmos. Here we show how we have created gearing and a display that respects the inscriptional evidence: a ring system with nine outputs- Moon, Nodes, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Date-carried by nested tubes with arms supporting the rings. We wanted to determine the cycles for all the planets in this Cosmos (not just the cycles discovered for Venus and Saturn) to incorporate these cycles into highly compact mechanisms, conforming to the physical evidence and to interleave them so their outputs correspond to the customary cosmological order (CCO), described below. Then came the discovery in the tomography of surprisingly complex periods for the planets Venus and Saturn, making the task very much harder 12. There were also unexplained components in Fragment D, revealed by the X-ray CT, and technical difficulties calculating the phase of the Moon 9. The evidence defines a framework for an epicyclic system at the front 9, but the spaces available for the gears are extremely limited. ![]() The tomography revealed a wealth of unexpected clues in the inscriptions, describing an ancient Greek Cosmos 9 at the front, but attempts to solve the gearing system failed to match all the data 1, 2, 3, 6, 9. Features on the Main Drive Wheel indicate that it calculated planetary motions with a complex epicyclic system (gears mounted on other gears), but its design remained a mystery. Our challenge was to create a new model to match all the surviving evidence. None of these models (Supplementary Discussion S6) are at all compatible with all the currently known data. Most previous reconstructions used pointers for the planetary displays, giving serious parallax problems 3, 9 and poorly reflecting the description in the inscriptions-see section on Inscriptional Evidence. S19), and independently by Carman, Thorndike, and Evans 11, simplified the gearing but were limited to basic periods for the planets. Later attempts by Freeth and Jones 9 (Supplementary Fig. Then Wright built the first workable system at the front that calculated planetary motions and periods, with a coaxial pointer display of the Cosmos, proving its mechanical feasibility 3 (Supplementary Fig. In the classic, Gears from the Greeks 2, Price suggested lost gearing that calculated planetary motions, but made no attempt at a reconstruction. In 1905–06, remarkable research notes by Rehm 1 described Mein Planetarium, with a ring display for the planets that anticipates the model we present here-but mechanically completely wrong due to his lack of data (Supplementary Fig. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to reconcile the evidence with a display of the ancient Greek Cosmos of Sun, Moon and all five planets known in antiquity. The front remained deeply controversial due to loss of physical evidence. This led to a solution to the back of the machine 4, 7, 8, 9, with the discovery of eclipse prediction and the mechanization of the lunar anomaly 7 (Supplementary Fig. In 2005 Microfocus X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) and Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) of the Mechanism’s 82 fragments 7 added substantial data. The fragments are a 3D puzzle of great complexity. Fragment A contains 27 of the surviving 30 gears, with a single gear in each of Fragments B, C and D 2, 5, 7, 10. Nevertheless, they are rich in evidence at the millimetre level-with fine details of mechanical components and thousands of tiny text characters, buried inside the fragments and unread for more than 2,000 years 7. They are partial, damaged, corroded and covered in accretions (Supplementary Fig. The major surviving fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism are labelled A–G and the minor fragments 1–75 7. It was a mechanical computer of bronze gears that used ground-breaking technology to make astronomical predictions, by mechanizing astronomical cycles and theories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The Antikythera Mechanism is a cultural treasure that has engrossed scholars across many disciplines. ![]()
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