Presentation: Imaging the Ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism -- 7pm, 6/13/13
Ed Katz
Thursday June 13, 2013--7pm
Imaging the Antikythera Mechanism
|
Tom Malzbender |
Abstract
In 1900, a party of sponge divers chanced on the
wreck of a Roman merchant vessel between Crete and
mainland Greece. It was found to contain numerous
ancient Greek treasures, among them a mysterious
lump of clay that split open to reveal `mathematical
gears' as it dried out. This object is now known as
the Antikythera Mechanism, one of the most
enlightening artifacts in terms of revealing the
advanced nature of ancient Greek science and
technology. In 2005 we traveled to the National
Archeological Museum in Athens to apply our
Reflectance Imaging methods to the mechanism in the
hopes of revealing ancient writing on the device. We
were successful, and along with the results of
Microfocus CT imaging, epigraphers were able to
decipher 3000 characters compared with the original
800 known. This lead to an understanding that the
device was a mechanical, astronomical computer
capable of predicting solar and lunar eclipses along
with other celestial events. This talk will overview
both the imaging methods as well as what they reveal
about the Antikythera Mechanism.
Date and Time
|
Thursday, June 13, 2013 |
Location
See p. 22 in the June IEEE Grid