Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism

Freeth, Tony; Bitsakis, Y.; Moussas, X.; Seiradakis, J. H.; Tselikas, Agamemnon; Mangou, Helen; Zafeiropoulou, M.; Hadland, R.; Bate, David; Ramsey, Andrew; Allen, M.; Crawley, Adrian P.; Hockley, P.; Malzbender, Tom; Gelb, Dan; Ambrisco, W.; Edmunds, M. G.

doi:10.1038/nature05357

Cited by 257 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Further Reading: On the Antikythera Mechanism, see (Freeth, 2006), (Wilford, 2006), (Seabrook, 2007), (Wilford, 2008), and (Freeth, 2009). For a slideshow, see Seabrook, John (2007), "Pieces of History", http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/05/14/slideshow 070514 antikythera 6.5.2 …”

Section: Does It Compute? What Does It Compute? Is What It Computes Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophy of Computer Science

Rapaport

2005

Teaching Philosophy

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Section: Does It Compute? What Does It Compute? Is What It Computes Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophy of Computer Science

Rapaport

2005

Teaching Philosophy

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“…We interpret this to be an allegory of an apparent turning point of planetary motion. The Antikythera mechanism (35-37) has an inscription for this event (38), called a ''sterigmos,'' or station. There are historical problems with this identification, because the first surviving mention in writing of a connection between the god Hermes and the planet Mercury is in Plato, two to three centuries later.…”

Section: References and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is an eclipse described in the Odyssey?

Baikouzis

Magnasco²

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Plutarch and Heraclitus believed a certain passage in the 20th book of the Odyssey (''Theoclymenus's prophecy'') to be a poetic description of a total solar eclipse. In the late 1920s, Schoch and Neugebauer computed that the solar eclipse of 16 April 1178 B.C.E. was total over the Ionian Islands and was the only suitable eclipse in more than a century to agree with classical estimates of the decade-earlier sack of Troy around 1192-1184 B.C.E. However, much skepticism remains about whether the verses refer to this, or any, eclipse. To contribute to the issue independently of the disputed eclipse reference, we analyze other astronomical references in the Epic, without assuming the existence of an eclipse, and search for dates matching the astronomical phenomena we believe they describe. We use three overt astronomical references in the epic: to Boö tes and the Pleiades, Venus, and the New Moon; we supplement them with a conjectural identification of Hermes's trip to Ogygia as relating to the motion of planet Mercury. Performing an exhaustive search of all possible dates in the span 1250 -1115 B.C., we looked to match these phenomena in the order and manner that the text describes. In that period, a single date closely matches our references: 16 April 1178 B.C.E. We speculate that these references, plus the disputed eclipse reference, may refer to that specific eclipse.

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“…High-resolution X-ray tomography enabled them to analyse the inner workings of the device, without breaking the item apart [5]. Recently, several of the authors of the current paper have worked on the task of reading historical scrolled parchment documents which have been damaged due to fire or water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovering Historical Film Footage by Processing Microtomographic Images

Liu

Rosin

Lai

et al. 2016

Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection

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Abstract. 1960s film was typically printed on tri-acetate film base. If not preserved properly, such material breaks down at a chemical level, which is a non-stoppable process that permanently fuses the film so that it essentially becomes a lump of solid plastic. Recently, some precious films, such as the only known copy of the earliest surviving episode of 'The Morecambe and Wise Show' have been discovered, but they are in poor condition. They will eventually turn into a pool of sticky liquid and be gone forever. In this paper, as proof of concept, we use X-ray microtomography to provide 3D imaging of a test film of similar vintage, and propose an automatic method to extract footage from it.

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Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism

Cited by 257 publications

References 6 publications

Philosophy of Computer Science

Philosophy of Computer Science

Is an eclipse described in the Odyssey?

Recovering Historical Film Footage by Processing Microtomographic Images

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