This story has been in and out of the news in the past few months. I find it very interesting and wanted to share it. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek computer made in or around 65 BCE! It was found as part of a shipwreck and wasn't fully appreciated till it was x-rayed. This showed numerous gears to tell various time cycles from the accurate measurement of movement of astronomical bodies. Recently it was shown to have recorded the Olympic calendar, as well as a 19 year Metonic calendar and the 76 year Callippic calendar. It also was able to predict eclipses. Mechanisms with similar complexity date 1000 years later than the Antikythera mechanism.
The picture shown is a reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism.
Nature Journal has a good article on it: Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature 454, 614-617 (31 July 2008) doi:10.1038/nature07130; Received 28 March 2008; Accepted 2 June 2008
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