Athens, July 3 2005
The Antikythera mechanism:
Reproduction of the Antikythera device: (composite image below)
A caption on this exhibit reads:
The reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism was the result of many years of investigation and study by Professor Derek de Solla Price. He collaborated with the National Center of Scientific Research "Demokritos" and with the nuclear physicist Ch. Karakalos, who took x- and gamma-radiographs of the original and then reconstructed the mechanism, in order to demonstrate how it functioned. Price constructed a rectangular box 33 cm high, 17 cm wide and 10 cm deep, with metal indication plates and door plates which protect them. Both the plates and the door plates have Greek inscriptions with indications of the planets. The mechanism has also a complex system of thirty-two (32) gear wheels of different sizes, each of which would move at a different speed. Price donated the reconstruction to the National Archaeological Museum in 1980. Despite reservations about it expressed by other scholars, it has become a reference point for other, later reconstructions of the Antikythera mechanism, whose study still goes on.
The death mask of Agamemnon:
