111 Years Ago, an Archaeologist Realized He Had Discovered the World's Oldest Known Computer

When it comes to celebrating the history of computers, it’s important to mark all binary anniversaries. In this spirit, we celebrate the 111th anniversary of the discovery of the oldest known computer. While some people call the Atanasoff-Berry computer the first, and some people point back further to Charles Babbage’s analytical engine, those who know give the crown to the Antikythera Mechanism, which scholars now think was built around 87 B.C.E. The Antikythera Mechanism was taken out of a sunken ship discovered in 1900 just off the tiny island of Antikythera, just north of Crete in the Mediterranean. After sitting in storage at Greece’s National Museum among other unidentified lumps of bronze, the archeologist Valerios Stais discovered it was, in fact, a mechanical object, on May 17, 1902. Granted, when most people say “computer” they don’t mean things like the slide rule or the abacus, but that’s what the term meant before—and concurrently—computers were electrified and digitalized. Technically the Antikythera Mechanism is analog, which makes the whole binary date thing seem a little dubious, but whatevs. Consisting of a box with dials on the outside and a very complex assembly of gear wheels mounted within, the Antikythera Mechanism must have looked like an old clock when Stais first deduced he was looking at something mechanical. What makes it all the more surprising is that it employs technology that would go unused in Europe until the 14th Century.

The Antikythera Mechanism is thought to be an astronomical mechanism, capable of predicting both solar eclipses and the Olympiad, which makes it sort of like NBC, but with solar eclipses and no Bob Costas. One dial indicates the Sun against the Zodiac, and some of the missing pieces might also indicate the position of the planets. Contemporary scientists used tomography to find the months etched onto the back. The month names surprisingly were “of Corinthian origins.” This is especially confusing, given that the ship it was found in was Roman. Classical literature mentions things like the Antikythera Mechanism, leading some to link it to Archimedes, but scientists just don’t know. It’s both an incredible find and an intriguing mystery, but people are pretty sure it is also the oldest known computer. On this day, 111 years ago, an archeologist in Athens discovered the Antikythera Mechanism and also that the Greeks knew even more than we gave them credit for.