The Antikythera mechanism is over 2,000 years old. Who built this device, and why, and how do we know? What's its purpose, and how does it function? And is it really even a computer at all?

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient shoebox-sized device that is sometimes called the world's oldest computer for its ability to perform astronomical calculations. Discovered by sponge divers ...

The Antikythera mechanism and its bronze gearwheels totally reconfigured the study of ancient technology. It was among a bunch of other antiquities pulled out of a shipwreck by sponge divers in 1901.

The Antikythera Mechanism consists of some 82 fragments today, but only roughly a third of the original device is believed to survive.

Divers found the Antikythera mechanism in a shipwreck in 1900. Zde via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 More than a century ago, a group of sponge divers discovered a shipwreck near the Greek ...

The Antikythera mechanism, shown here in this computer reconstruction, was about the size of a shoebox, with dials on its exterior and an intricate system of 30 or so bronze gear wheels inside.

In its November 2023 issue, the Website Grunge assumed that certain science questions “won’t be answered in the next 50 years.” One of those questions was about the Antikythera Mechanism ...

The Antikythera mechanism, characterized as an ancient analog computer, could predict planetary positions, moon phases, and eclipses.

The inspiration for the titular device in last year's blockbuster, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was an actual archaeological artifact: the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,200-year-old bronze ...

The Antikythera mechanism — an ancient shoebox-sized device that was used to track the motions of the sun, moon and planets — followed the Greek lunar calendar, not the solar one used by the Egyptians ...

The Antikythera mechanism was thought to have been used by the ancient Greeks to calculate the movements of the Sun, Moon, and other planets, as well as eclipses. Only a fragment of it survived ...