Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 444, 551-552 (30 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/444551a; Published online 29 November 2006
There is a Correction (7 December 2006) associated with this document.
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Novel Approaches to Protecting Maize from Insect Damage
The Seeker is looking for novel approaches to protecting maize from insect damage. This Challenge re...
-
Methods of Modeling Adaptation in Populations
The analysis of adaptation with a population is a frequently encountered computational modeling scen...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Fellowships
- Brighams and Women's Hospital
- Boston, MA
Research Fellow
- University of Leeds
- Leeds, UK
Archaeology: High tech from Ancient Greece
François Charette1
Abstract
The Antikythera Mechanism, salvaged 100 years ago from an ancient shipwreck, was long known to be some sort of mechanical calendar. But modern analysis is only now revealing just how sophisticated it was.
During renovation work in a northern Italian palazzo, an enigmatic artefact comes to light, dated to the late fifteenth century. After intensive analysis, it is identified as a complex steam engine — constructed 200 years before French inventor Denis Papin's pioneering experiments, and 300 years before the Industrial Revolution.
- François Charette is at the Lehrstuhl für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Museumsinsel 1, D-80538 München, Germany.
Email: fcharette@ankabut.net
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Early mathematical wheelwork: Byzantine calendrical gearingNature News and Views (28 Mar 1985)
RESEARCH
Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera MechanismNature Letters to Editor (31 Jul 2008)
Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera MechanismNature Letters to Editor (30 Nov 2006)
