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by Himitsu Bako from HumitsuBako Website
Often, the creation of a
pseudo science mythology is easier and more profitable than
performing the needed research to discover a historical or physical
fact.
The ship, determined sunk in 65 B.C.±15 years, rested in 42 meters of water at latitude 35° 52’ 30’’ north, longitude 23° 18’ 35’’ east.1
Not the first discovered Greek wreck, not the last. For some months after the discovery, salvage divers worked to recover statues and other artifacts from the wreckage.
None of the recovered items
seemed extraordinary till 17 May 1902 when archaeologist Spyridon
Stais noticed a gear mechanism in one artifact.2
In a seminal 1959 paper published in Scientific America, he reported the mechanism was a component of a device to calculate the motion of stars and planets.3 As science historian James Burke often states, then the world changed.
The change was not of the high publicity, earth-shattering
type, rather the facts of the mechanism forced historians to
reevaluate the technological sophistication of the Greek culture of
the first century B.C. (An old joke states that if you earn a Ph.D
you lose the ability to say "I don’t understand," and "I was
wrong.") In 1971, the Greek Atomic Energy Commission performed gamma
radiographic scans of the mechanism which allowed Price to
deduce the function of the device.4
The sidereal month is the period of the moon’s 360 degree orbit of the earth - 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes (27.321578 days). A moon phase is a function of the relative position of the sun, moon, and earth, and since the earth revolves around the sun as the moon revolves around the earth, the relative sun-earth-moon configuration requires the extra 2.21 days to repeat a moon phase.
A simulation of the phase must subtract the sidereal
motion of the sun from the motion of the moon. Hence, use a
differential.
Greek (Rhodian) historian, scientist, philosopher.
He wrote a 52-book history of the Roman Empire, picking up where Polybius left off. This work heavily influenced later historians and other writers, from which we glean what we know of Posidonius and his views.
He promoted the Roman Empire, seeing it as a reflection of the cosmic order, in which every human is a citizen of the great city of God. Posidonius saw that primitive cultures were equivalent to the earlier stages of advanced cultures and thus saw the commonality of mankind, which he believed would be best fostered by unification under Rome.
Posidonius was also a theoretical and experimental scientist, studying tides and their relationship with the moon, calculating the circumference of the earth, and recording ocean currents. His interest in the sciences was in part due to his belief that similar laws apply in both the worlds of man and of nature.
He believed that in studying the one, you could learn also about the other, and through better appreciation of common laws, better understand the overarching structure of philosophical existence and the cosmos itself. A powerful thinker, Posidonius greatly impressed his contemporaries and left a significant legacy in their thought and writing, the famous biographer Plutarch being among those "dependent on Posidonius for their conception of history."
We need neither ancient astronauts or advanced lost civilizations to explain the existence of the mechanism.
Man’s ingenuity provides all the explanation needed.
References
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The
Antikythera Mechanism, one mystery of the ancient world.
Immediately before Easter 1900, sponge divers exploring off
the coast of Antikythera island in the Aegean Sea discovered
the wreckage of an ancient Greek ship.