After decades of research, a seemingly innocuous find retrieved from a Roman shipwreck was revealed as a sensational scientific discovery, proving that the ancient Greeks were capable of making mechanical models of the cosmos with hitherto unimagined precision. The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ is an analogue ‘calendar computer’.
The earth is an observable system of systems, and even back then, people were just as smart as us and perhaps a little more connected to those rhythms and cycles in their daily lives. Many cultures built physical representations of these things, like Stonehenge, but a surviving portable one is a marvel. I often wonder what was the first of such portable devices, as the complexity of this one shows that there may be a few generations of ideas.
There’s a huge difference between Stonehenge and a clock gear. The latter requires a level of precision that I didn’t know they could achieve back then. It’s not a matter of intelligence, it’s a matter of technology. This timepiece is an impressive achievement.
That is what I am saying. :)