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2000-year-old Lunar Solar Computer

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museum curator from England has cracked the code and built the first complete working replica of a 2,000-year-old Grecian machine that has been called the world's first computer.

The original mechanism was discovered in a shipwreck near the Greek Island of Kythera in 1902. Based on the dating for the ship and all the other items found, it appears to have been created in approximately 150 B.C., which places it 1400 years ahead of its time.

The purpose of this mechanism, which became known as the "Antikythera Mechanism", was a mystery for decades. The working model of this machine is no larger than a dictionary in size. It houses 37 gears and moves with the precision of a Swiss clock. In the final analysis, it was clearly designed for demonstrating and predicting the movements of the heavenly bodies as well as the famed Olympic Games.

It was suggested in the past that it may have been used for astrology; however nothing in its function demonstrates this to be so. It appears that the maker was showing off his depth of knowledge and skill in regards to true time and astronomy. It is truly remarkable that so long ago they were able to demonstrate, with a working calculative machine, exactly how the heavenly bodies move and measure time. This would have been a revolutionary idea for their time.

While some may say this machine is a cousin of our modern clock, it may be more correct to view it as its great grandfather. While it doesn't calculate the detailed hours, minutes or seconds of a given day, it is a multifaceted calendar that calculates time on a far grander scale. Perhaps it could well be compared to this Astronomical clocks of Strasburg which was created in 1354 and the one in Prague in 1410. Astronomical Clock of Prague

This world's first known scientific instrument actually calculated the positions of the celestial bodies in cycles of 19 years. Less known to most of us is that the sun, moon, stars run their complete circuit of time every 19 years, and not simply every solar year. What this mechanism demonstrates definitively is that the lunar cycles of 354 days each year, come into perfect harmony with the sun's apparent rotations of 365 days, every 19 years. It is an astronomical "checks and balances" in operation.

A foundational principle of "time" that is nearly lost and forgotten is that while the sun has a 365 day rotation as visible from earth; what we call the solar system is actually on a full 19 year cycle. For mankind to follow only the suns circuit for calendation each year is like using only the second hand on a clock for timekeeping, because we all know that the hour hand and minute hand are also necessary for a complete accounting of time. The same however is true with the timekeeping calendar that Yahuwah placed in the heavens at creation. While the sun gives us our increments of time in relation to what we call "days" and "solar years"; the moon gives us "nights", "New Moons or months", and its corresponding "Sabbaths" then refreshing the cycle each month. While the moon is on a completely different yearly cycle than that of the sun, it also designates years, "lunar years" which are 354 days in length. But in addition, the moon was also set to beacon the completion of the 19 year cycles of the planets and the constellations of the stars, including that of the sun.

Time isn't complete until the moon has completed its 19 year cycle. We have clearly been using the sun to reckon our years which was never the intention of Yahuwah in scripture. True time according to the Creator in Genesis 1:14-17 is kept according to the sum of all the parts, not simply one part.

While most of us are unfamiliar with the movements of the heavenly bodies, as is often studied in astronomy, the Antikythera's mechanism interface is deceptively simple. It is hand operated by a simple knob on the side. Within the frame is concealed the intricacy of the gears, which displays a complex mathematical function, tracking the movements of planetary bodies and incorporating a series of submechanisms to demonstrate the elliptics in their rotation.

In the video from New Scientist, Wright shows how the machine works. Watch as the Antikythera Mechanism comes back to life after 2000 years.

Regulars of the Science Weekly podcast will remember our interview with Jo Marchant, the author of Decoding the Heavens. The book tells the story of the Antikythera mechanism, a mysterious clockwork object made up of numerous meshed cogs that was discovered more than a century ago among the cargo of a Greek shipwreck.

The mystery of how the Greeks had made a machine that appeared to be 1800 years ahead of its time and why that knowledge was seemingly lost is fascinating, but Marchant's story is really about the scientists and engineers who have fallen under the spell of the Antikythera mechanism over the last century. It is a gripping tale of scientific obsession, rivalry and skulduggery.

If there is one thing that lets the book down, it lacks clear diagrams of how the cogs fitted together and hence how the mechanism worked. This video makes up for that. It shows Michael Wright's working model of the Antikythera mechanism. I defy you not to be amazed.

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