From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Terracotta Army, ancient artifacts have long fascinated the modern world. However, the importance of some discoveries is not always immediately understood. This was the case in 1901 when sponge divers retrieved a lump of corroded bronze from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Antikythera. Little did the divers know they had found the oldest known analog computer in the world, an astonishing
device that once simulated the motions of the stars and planets as they were understood by ancient Greek astronomers. Its remains now consist of 82 fragments, many of them containing gears and plates
engraved with Greek words, that scientists and scholars have pieced back together through painstaking inspection and deduction, aided by radiographic tools and surface imaging. More than a century after its discovery, many of the secrets locked in this mysterious device can now be revealed. In addition to chronicling the unlikely discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism, author Alexander Jones takes readers through a discussion of how the device worked, how and for what
purpose it was created, and why it was on a ship that wrecked off the Greek coast around 60 BC. What the Mechanism has uncovered about Greco-Roman astronomy and scientific technology, and their place in
Greek society, is truly amazing. The mechanical know-how that it embodied was more advanced than anything the Greeks were previously thought capable of, but the most recent research has revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman could understand the behavior of astronomical phenomena, and how intertwined they were with one's natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of machinery as well as one of the first portable teaching devices. Written by a
world-renowned expert on the Mechanism, A Portable Cosmos will fascinate all readers interested in ancient history, archaeology, and the history of science.
From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Terracotta Army, ancient artifacts have long fascinated the modern world. However, the importance of some discoveries is not always immediately understood. This was the case in 1901 when sponge divers retrieved a lump of corroded bronze from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Antikythera. Little did the divers know they had found the oldest known analog computer in the world, an astonishing
device that once simulated the motions of the stars and planets as they were understood by ancient Greek astronomers. Its remains now consist of 82 fragments, many of them containing gears and plates
engraved with Greek words, that scientists and scholars have pieced back together through painstaking inspection and deduction, aided by radiographic tools and surface imaging. More than a century after its discovery, many of the secrets locked in this mysterious device can now be revealed. In addition to chronicling the unlikely discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism, author Alexander Jones takes readers through a discussion of how the device worked, how and for what
purpose it was created, and why it was on a ship that wrecked off the Greek coast around 60 BC. What the Mechanism has uncovered about Greco-Roman astronomy and scientific technology, and their place in
Greek society, is truly amazing. The mechanical know-how that it embodied was more advanced than anything the Greeks were previously thought capable of, but the most recent research has revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman could understand the behavior of astronomical phenomena, and how intertwined they were with one's natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of machinery as well as one of the first portable teaching devices. Written by a
world-renowned expert on the Mechanism, A Portable Cosmos will fascinate all readers interested in ancient history, archaeology, and the history of science.
Preface
Chapter 1. The Wreck and the Discovery
Chapter 2. The Investigations
Chapter 3. Looking at the Mechanism
Chapter 4. Calendars and Games
Chapter 5. Stars, Sun, and Moon
Chapter 6. Eclipses
Chapter 7. The Wanderers
Chapter 8. Hidden Workings
Chapter 9. Afterword: The Meaning of the Mechanism
Bibliography
Alexander Jones is Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.
"[Jones] presents a very readable account of the Mechanism, and the
consensus of what it was used for... [An] excellent 'User Manual.'"
--Journal of the British Astronomical Asso ciation
"Jones has, in short, produced a superb guide to this dazzling
embodiment of ancient astronomical knowledge and mechanical
technology. Detailed enough that even scholars of ancient science
will learn much, yet readable enough that undergraduate students
will find it approachable (I myself have tested out both
audiences), this book ends the long wait for a thorough, reliable,
and accessible guide to the Antikythera Mechanism." --Courtney
Roby, Cornell
University, in Classical World
"The book is a triumph at several levels, as an account of
high-grade detective work, as an exposition of ancient astronomical
ideas, and as a disquisition on where those ideas fitted into the
society that produced them.... This is recommended reading for
anyone interested in ancient astronomy." --Geoffrey Lloyd, Journal
for the History of Astronomy
"This book will be invaluable to those engaged in the study of the
science of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Endnotes and references
will assist individuals who wish to delve into further research.
The presented black-and-white photographs and drawings are
essential to understanding the work's subject matter. ... Summing
Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals."
--M. Dickinson, CHOICE
"Jones' book is written in such a way that makes it profitable
reading for a wide range of readers, from the specialists on the
Mechanism to those who have never heard of it. It presents in
detail and explains clearly and in a pleasant way the Mechanism and
its context by using all the existing specialised literature: this
is really the Bible of the Antikythera Mechanism. The only
recommendation to the unprepared reader is to use the book with
moderation. One
can easily become addicted to the Antikythera Mechanism, this
absolute technical marvel of Antiquity, and dedicate oneself to the
endless search for its lost planetary gear trains." --Efthymios
Nicolaidis, Almagest
"Jones's text, too, is precise but calm, elegant and with a certain
charm. His learning is broad: here's Ptolemy, here are gear ratios,
here's Cicero and Galen, Babylonians, planets, lunar months,
Glauco, epicyclics and the 'Spindle of Necessity'. And it is not
just the cosmos that is demonstrated, but the vast difference, and
astonishing similarity, between us and our ancestors. So out of the
history of science comes a sense of our humanity and the
ancient
desire to comprehend. God knows, it's timely, in the shrivelled
cosmos we are building. We need more books like this. And probably
more sponge-divers, too." --Michael Bywater, The Spectator
"A historian of science and technology, Mr. Jones played a role in
this endeavor. His job was to link the complexities of the
Antikythera Mechanism to what the ancient Greeks believed about the
astronomy of a geocentric universe. His virtue as an author is an
exhaustive knowledge of his subject, such as how Greek calendars
varied from city to city and how pre-Copernican astral calculations
accounted for the mystery of the planets' retrograde motion...Mr.
Jones
can be refreshingly candid, avoiding scholarly habits of
overcaution." --John J. Miller, Wall Street Journal
"A Portable Cosmos is a fine account of everything that pertains to
the Antikythera mechanism-the story of its discovery and
decipherment, the scholarly debates about its date and provenance,
and the meanings it would have held for an ancient viewer. The book
is notable for its sweep, and the ease with which it moves back and
forth among ancient literature, the phenomena of astronomy, and the
mechanical details of the surviving artifact. This is a gem
of a book."-James Evans, University of Puget Sound
"My major contribution to this amazing lost-and-found story
occurred when I was asked to referee a paper on the remarkable
Antikythera Mechanism, which had been recovered from an ancient
ship wreck. I told them, 'You should really ask Alexander Jones.'
They did, and the unexpected result was that Jones, an outstanding
scholar and an expert in both ancient Greek and antique astronomy,
was invited to join the team. Here Jones describes the long and
fascinating
path to decipherment in the decades since the device was found by
divers in 1900." -Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics
"Alexander Jones has done a huge service with A Portable Cosmos,
dispelling many of the myths associated with this fascinating
artifact... he has provided an engagingly written and detailed
history of the Mechanism, covering the discovery itself, research
undertaken to date, the ancient scientific and technological
expertise underpinning the object and the cultural contexts of the
Greco-Roman world in which it was made and meant to be used.
Jones
persuasively argues that the Mechanism was intended as an
educational tool, rather than a specialist bit of kit...its
intended audience may have been the ancient counterpart to those
readers who will be drawn to
Jones' authoritative and insightful account. A Portable Cosmos is
set to become the definitive history of the Antikythera Mechanism,
and will be of great value to specialists, as well as students and
those interested in ancient Greco-Roman science and
technology."-Liba Taub, University of Cambridge
"Alexander Jones' comprehensive look at the Antikythera mechanism
and its context will suit readers interested in the mechanism or
the history of science in general." - Publishers Weekly
"A Portable Cosmos is both an excellent focussed case study of an
individual object and a comprehensive broader treatment of the
relevant aspects of ancient science and technology. It is
beautifully and thoughtfully illustrated, with numerous diagrams
and photographs placed strategically throughout, not just of the
mechanism but of various other relevant ancient objects such as
calendar and other almanac-style parapegma inscriptions,
manuscripts, astrolabes etc. I shall definitely be adding it to the
syllabi of my 'Nature and the Natural World in Antiquity' and
'Ancient Technology' courses, and I recommend that other
instructors do the same." - Jane
Draycott, Classics for All
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