Human skeleton found on famed Antikythera shipwreck

Within days of the find, Foley invited Schroeder, an expert in ancient-DNA analysis from the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, to assess whether genetic material might be extracted from the bones. On his way to Antikythera, Schroeder was doubtful. But as he removes the bones from their bags he is pleasantly surprised. The material is a little chalky, but overall looks well preserved. “It doesn’t look like bone that’s 2,000 years old,” he says. Then, sifting through several large pieces of skull, he finds both petrous bones — dense nuggets behind the ear that preserve DNA better than other parts of the skeleton or the teeth.

Human skeleton found on famed Antikythera shipwreck

The Antikythera mechanism (/ˌæntᵻkᵻˈθɪərə/ ANT-i-ki-THEER-ə or /ˌæntᵻˈkɪθərə/ ANT-i-KITH-ə-rə) is an ancient analogue computer[1][2][3][4] and orrery used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendrical and astrological purposes,[5][6][7] as well as the Olympiads, the cycles of the ancient Olympic Games.

Found housed in a 340 millimetres (13 in) × 180 millimetres (7.1 in) × 90 millimetres (3.5 in) wooden box, the device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. Its remains were found as one lump, later separated in three main fragments, which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation works. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear (clearly visible in Fragment A at right) is approximately 140 millimetres (5.5 in) in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.

The artefact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists, the instrument has been dated either between 150 and 100 BC,or, according to a more recent view, in 205 BC. After the knowledge of this technology was lost at some point in antiquity, technological artefacts approaching its complexity and workmanship did not appear again until the development of mechanical astronomical clocks in Europe in the fourteenth century. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

I have always been VERY intreagued by the mechanism that was found there, an advanced (relatively speaking) computer from 2,000 years ago?!

Now thanks to this discovery, we might finally discover who actually built the thing!

Oh, wow! Thank you so much for posting this. I am now stuck here for the whole evening Now I need to know more on this!

a reply to: AmmonSeth

Trippy!



Not the actual dead sailor.

a reply to: AmmonSeth

Now thanks to this discovery, we might finally discover who actually built the thing!

how so ?

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: AmmonSeth

Now thanks to this discovery, we might finally discover who actually built the thing!

how so ?

Dna should be able to tell us where they were actually from, it's always just been assumed they were Greek fishermen, but maybe the results could hint otherwise.

My money is on Romans. They're the only group of people (non conspiracy wise) that could've had the resources and expertise needed to build such an advanced and intricate computer imho

originally posted by: AmmonSeth
My money is on Romans. They're the only group of people (non conspiracy wise) that could've had the resources and expertise needed to build such an advanced and intricate computer imho

I'm thinking maybe some Muslim Turkish dude. They had the math skills to do it, and used Babylonian astronomy, which the mechanism is apparently based on.

a reply to: AmmonSeth

Now thanks to this discovery, we might finally discover who actually built the thing!

The way I understood it, the mechanism may have been fabricated on the then-Greek Island of Rhodes, which was sacked and looted at a later time, and the ship that wrecked was thought perhaps to be transporting booty from Rhodes somewhere else.

The DNA can help to know who the 'sackers' may have been genetically, but probably the maker of the mechanism will remain lost to time, unfortunately ... unless some more information is discovered *shrug*

a reply to: AmmonSeth

appologies for the previous curt resonse - but heres the more civilised explaination of why i believe your premise is flawed :

there is no evidential link between the mechanism and the human remains [ other than thier presence on board the same ship ] 0 ie :

did they both board at the same port ?

the only value of the human remains is IMHO - dating - C14 dating of the skull will give another accurate benchmark of when the ship sank [ with the caveat - it is assumed the person boarded as live passenger ]

www.liveleak.com...

originally posted by: AmmonSeth

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: AmmonSeth

Now thanks to this discovery, we might finally discover who actually built the thing!

how so ?

Dna should be able to tell us where they were actually from, it's always just been assumed they were Greek fishermen, but maybe the results could hint otherwise.

My money is on Romans. They're the only group of people (non conspiracy wise) that could've had the resources and expertise needed to build such an advanced and intricate computer imho

If I find the space shuttle with the remains of an Ethiopian does that mean Ethiopians built the space shuttle?

If you think the ancient Greeks couldn't have built this, and many other things that were lost, you obviously have a very limited knowledge base.

There's a saying, that the Greeks would have gone to the moon first hundreds of years before the Americans, for good reason you know.
There's a reason why Europe was brought out of the dark ages by the Arabs who were given access to the wealth of Ancient Greek knowledge by the Greeks.