The actual Antikythera mechanism - r/interestingasfuck

r/interestingasfuck • u/prelude12342000 • 22d ago

3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

-10

The dating is wrong. There is no way a device like this was created 2100 years ago. If it was dated at 1000 years ago I would say it is a bit of a stretch but may be an early prototype. But I don't believe for a second that this was built in 89BC. Next you will be telling me the Pyramids were built 10,000+ years ago.

4

u/posthamster 22d ago

So you're saying someone created it 1000 years ago, and then hid it in the wreck of a ship which sank 1000 years prior to that? Amazing logic.

-8

u/poolradar 22d ago

The dating is wrong. There is just no way this device was made 2100 years ago. At that time we had only just begun to use wheels and you want me to believe that at the same time someone was creating very specialised gears.

7

u/posthamster 22d ago

Actually, yes. That's pretty much exactly what's going on here. The mechanism is a very extreme example of that, which is why it's so amazing.

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u/poolradar 22d ago

You are out of your mind then. That is like finding an iPhone sitting next to the very first Vacuum Tubes and thinking Yep these two things were made at the same time.

4

u/fltrthr 22d ago

They can tell how old is is based on the style of astronomical measurements and motions used, among other things.

-2

u/poolradar 22d ago

And I am saying that measurement is obviously flawed. If you think about it for a few minutes it makes zero sense for this thing to have been created at the same time as the wheel. This is a huge leap in technology for that era. It just does not fit therefore the process to date it is flawed.

8

u/fltrthr 22d ago

You clearly have very little grasp on history, because the wheel predates this by about 2000 years.

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u/darkon 22d ago

The wheel had been in use for over 3000 years by the time the Antikythera device was made. Wheels were being used in many ways by around 100 BC.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/wheel

A Sumerian (Erech) pictograph, dated about 3500 bc, shows a sledge equipped with wheels. The idea of wheeled transportation may have come from the use of logs for rollers, but the oldest known wheels were wooden disks consisting of three carved planks clamped together by transverse struts.

Spoked wheels appeared about 2000 bc, when they were in use on chariots in Asia Minor.

3

u/SchwiftyTownshin 21d ago

I love how you seem to think you are any authority at all to historically date this device, or the ancient pyramids for that matter.

Spoiler: you aren’t

2

u/yournorthernbuddy 21d ago

Sir the wheel was invented for chariots by around 2200 bc (4221~ years ago). The general shape of a wheel is atleast 2 thousand years older as the potter wheel.

Around 2100 years ago (~80bc) chariots had already come and gone in terms of popularity. The Roman Republic controlled most of the western Mediterranean and they certainly had wheels among other technologies