Storiascopio · Era 5 of 12 · primary year 5
The Antikythera mechanism
about 100 BC · Island of Antikythera (Greece)
In short
In the early 1900s some sponge divers found the wreck of a ship that had sunk near the Greek island of Antikythera, and among the objects brought up was a lump of corroded bronze. Inside were dozens of gearwheels, as fine as those in a clock. It was a kind of calculator: when a handle was turned, it showed the positions of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon and coming eclipses. No mechanism this complex is known for more than a thousand years afterwards.
Why it matters It shows that Greek scientists could build precision machines that no one would have imagined.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Antikythera mechanism”
Where we are in the era “Ancient Greece”
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
about 800 BCEvent 25 of 25about 100 BC
Your turn
Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________
When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:
Tell it in your own words: what happened?
Draw the scene below.
storiascopio.com/en/event/the-antikythera-mechanism/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class