Evidence of a Lunar Calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Antikythera Mechanism : British Horological Institute:
New analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism presents evidence that the mechanism's front-dial ring is a 354-day lunar calendar, not a 365-day calendar as previously supposed.
The importance of the Antikythera Mechanism has been recognised since nearly the moment of its discovery on the Mediterranean Sea floor in 1901. It is a complex mechanical computer that could be used to predict, amongst other things, solar and lunar motions and their eclipses. It links the craft of the clockmaker all the way back to the origins of mechanical devices 2100 years ago.
Scholars including Derek de Solla Price, Tony Freeth, Alexander Jones, Michael Wright, and Mike Edmunds have expanded our understanding of this device. The authors of this paper based their work on a new statistical analysis of the hole-spacing in the front calendar ring, combined with practical insights gained by experience in construction of traditional clocks and reconstruction of mechanisms from antiquity.
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