Ancient Technology

It looks like a heap of rubbish, feels like flaky pastry and has been linked to aliens. For decades, scientists have puzzled over the complex collection of cogs, wheels and dials seen as the most sophisticated object from antiquity, writes Helena Smith. But 102 years after the discovery of the calcium-encrusted bronze mechanism on the ocean floor, hidden inscriptions show that it is the world's oldest computer, used to map the motions of the sun, moon and planets. 'We're very close to unlocking the secrets,' says Xenophon Moussas,an astrophysicist with a Anglo-Greek team researching the device. 'It's like a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge.'Known as the Antikythera mechanism and made before the birth of Christ, the instrument was found by sponge divers amid the wreckage of a cargo ship that sunk off the tiny island of Antikythera in 80BC.

To date, no other appears to have survived. 'Bronze objects like these would have been recycled, but being in deep water it was out of reach of the scrap-man and we had the luck to discover it,' said Michael Wright, a former curator at London's Science Museum. He said the apparatus was the best proof yet of how technologically advanced the ancients were. 'The skill with which it was made shows a level of instrument-making not surpassed until the Renaissance. It really is the first hard evidence of their interest in mechanical gadgets, ability to make them and the preparedness of somebody to pay forthem.' For years scholars had surmised that the object was an astronomical showpiece, navigational instrument or rich man's toy. The Roman Cicero described the device as being for 'after-dinner entertainment'. But many experts say it could change how the history of science is written. 'In many ways, it was the first analogue computer,' said Professor Theodosios Tassios of the National Technical University of Athens. 'It will change the way we look at the ancients' technological achievements.'

View: Full Article | Source: The Observer

Michael Hesemann’s recent findings about Soviet UFO research have emerged because these secrets are no longer closely guarded by a paranoid totalitarian culture (1). The collapse of the Soviet system has allowed the Generals to freely discuss their work on the UFO question, and the remarkable data the Russians collected about this enigma. There is a consensus of opinion among those Russian officers interviewed by Hesemann and his colleagues that UFOs are real, and not of this Earth.

The Russians are far more candid about this than we would have expected. In fact, their stark message about UFO reality can sometimes read like a sensationalist tabloid headline. Only, they’re serious people with a serious message. Is it our Western cultural bias that causes us to struggle with the image of 3-star Russian generals openly and seriously discussing the extra-terrestrial origins of UFOs? On 19th November 2002, Pravda, that old bastion of communist propaganda, published an article about Stalin’s deep interest in flying saucers, and the many military and scientific bodies set up by the Soviets to secretly investigate the phenomenon. Incredibly, Pravda also described an alleged retrieval of an alien artefact during archeological digs in Kiev, near the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. After all, this is the word of Pravda, the voice of Russia. I first read about this in ‘The Editor’, a weekly global news summary published by The Guardian newspaper. Entitled ‘Stalin was a UFO Obsessive’, it covered the Pravda story thus:

“The US government might have spent more than half a century trying to convince suspicious conspiracy theorists that no UFO ever crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, but one man never believed the story. That man, according to Pravda (Nov 19), was Joseph Stalin. The Soviet dictator apparently thought the US was covering up with its story of a weather balloon crashing, so he ordered senior scientists to investigate. "In order to assess the situation, the scientists recommended that Stalin organise special investigations of similar phenomena. As a result, a number of programmes to study UFOs were launched in the USSR…Until the end of the 90s, there were seven research institutes and about 10 secret military departments of the [former] Soviet defence ministry that studies UFO phenomena.” In fact, suggests Pravda, one UFO-related discovery – the remains of an ancient alien rocket – provided vital technical knowledge for the Soviet space programme. The paper, once home to endless accounts of Communist party congresses, did not offer any evidence to back this assertion." (2)...

A spectacular discovery of Stone Age menhirs in Brittany could unlock the code to one of the most puzzling chapters of human development, and transform our knowledge of mankind's early history. Some months ago builders were clearing a piece of wasteland in southern Brittany when they struck an enormous hunk of granite. The developer was no historian but he knew instantly what the obstacle must be: the remains of a buried "menhir" or neolithic standing stone. He ordered abulldozer to shove the stone underground again before any passing busybody spotted it.

He did not want the work on his six seaside bungalows to be halted for a prolonged archaeological dig.Brittany, he probably reasoned, is crammed with old stones. At Carnac - the largest neolithic site in the world, just down the road - there is a linear forest of 3,000 menhirs in the space of four kilometres. Was that not enough ancient monuments to satisfy the historians, the tourists and the Ministry of Culture in Paris? Too late. A passing busy-body had noticed the unearthed menhir. Work on the bungalows was halted. Anarchaeological dig was ordered.As a result, our knowledge of early human history may be transformed - or at least deeply enriched. Preliminary exploration of the site has just been completed. One of France's foremost experts on neolithic times calls the results a "miracle". Other experts speak of a "time machine".

View: Full Article | Source: The Independent

The size of a shoebox, a mysterious bronze device scooped out of a Roman-era shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century has baffled scientists for years. Now a British researcher has stunningly established it as the world's oldest surviving astronomy computer.A team of Greek and British scientists probing the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism has managed to decipher ancient Greek inscriptions unseen for over 2,000 years, members of the project say."Part of the text on the machine, over 1,000 characters, had already been deciphered, but we have succeeded in doubling this total," said physician Yiannis Bitsakis, part of amulti-disciplinary team of researchers from universities in Athens, Salonika and Cardiff, the Athens National Archaeological Museum and the Hewlett-Packard company. "We have now deciphered 95 percent of the text," he told AFP. Scooped out of a Roman shipwreck located in 1900 by sponge divers near the southern Greek island of Antikythera, and kept at the Athens National Archaeological Museum, the Mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials, and is covered in astronomical inscriptions. Probably operated by crank, it survives in three main pieces and some smaller fragments. "(The device) could calculate the position of certain stars, at least the Sun and Moon, and perhaps predict astronomical phenomena," said astrophysicist Xenophon Moussas of AthensUniversity. "It was probably rare, if not unique," he added. The rarity of the Antikythera Mechanism precluded its removal from the museum, so an eight-tonne 'body scanner' had to be assembled on-site for the privately-funded project, which used three-dimensional tomography to expose the unseen inscriptions. The first appraisal of the Mechanism's purpose was put forward in the 1960s by British science historian Derek Price, but the scientists' latest discovery raises more questions.  "It is a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge in antiquity," said Moussas. "The Mechanism could actually rewrite certain chapters in this area." "The challenge is to place this device into a scientific context, as it comes almost outof nowhere...

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