Decoding the Heavens

Decoding the Heavens

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is home to one of the strangest artifacts of all time. Rescued in 1901 from an ancient shipwreck in the Mediterranean, the Antikythera Mechanism—a 2,000-year-old assemblage of at least 30 geared wheels and densely written Greek inscriptions—looks like a product of the 20th century. In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant chronicles the quest to understand what may be the world’s earliest device for calculating celestial events.

Over the past century, a slew of researchers—from the noted historian of science Derek de Solla Price to the astrophysicist Allan Bromley—have investigated the mechanism’s structure and possible use. In this gripping detective story, Marchant introduces these men, their findings and their frequent clashes of interpretation.

As early as 1907, Albert Rehm suggested the device might have been a model planetarium—as a handle was turned, the different-sized gear wheels may have converted the motion into the appropriate speeds for each of the planets known at the time. But it was Price whose exhaustive study of the mechanism realized its true significance as, in Marchant’s words, “the oldest surviving trace of a technology that had been crucial to the emergence of the modern world.”

Noting the device’s inscriptions (e.g., “Vega rises in the evening,” “Gemini begins to rise”), as well as careful study of the dimensions of its toothed wheels, Price dubbed it an astronomical “calendar computer” able to calculate the positions of the Sun, Moon and stars in the sky. Later researchers—thanks to ever more sophisticated scanning technologies—have broadened this picture considerably. Every tooth, peg, shaft and pin has now been imaged in crisp detail, suggesting a device capable of predicting planetary motion and lunar eclipses as well. The book also offers speculation on which ancient astronomer—Hipparchus is a prime suspect—may have helped design it.

Decoding the Heavens unlocks the mysteries of an amazing example of ancient technology.


PRAISE FOR DECODING THE HEAVENS

“Though it is more than 2,000 years old, the Antikythera Mechanism represents a level that our technology did not match until the 18th century, and must therefore rank as one of the greatest basic mechanical inventions of all time. I hope this book will rekindle interest in this artefact, which still remains under-rated.”—Arthur C. Clarke

“Marchant blends the story of the Antikythera Mechanism, the people bewitched by it, the 100-year race to understand it, with the history, chemistry, archaeology, astronomy, engineering behind it. The account is sprinkled with the magic dust of an Indiana Jones adventure.”—New Scientist

“Decoding the Heavens is Marchant’s first book and is aimed squarely at the non-scientific reader, but is serious about the science. Her gripping and varied account will propel the mechanism to greater fame, although it may never achieve the celebrity of the Rosetta Stone that it probably deserves.”—Nature

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Da Capo Press ( February 01, 2009 )

Item #: 52-2036

ISBN: 9780306817427

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 14.0 ounces