Front dials

The Antikythera Mechanism was found by divers in 1901 off the coast of Antikythera, a Greek island 18 miles north of Crete. A rough replica of the device was eventually constructed and archeologists guessed that it was an astronomical calculator. But the inner workings and the device's true nature went unknown for 100 years. Now, several physical factors and the device's reference to Hipparchos, place the mechanism between 140-200 B.C., and a complete computer model of the device (shown here) has been constructed, according to the group's findings published in the November 30, 2006, issue of Nature.