"The Treasure of Antikythera": Forthcoming exhibition on our novel series' prime topic!

For anyone who wonders what our "Romanike" series of historical novels is about, there is an exhibition forthcoming in the Antiikenmuseum of Basel, Switzerland. The following excerpt I translated from the German version of their announcement:

"27.09.15 - 27.03.16

The Sunken Treasure. The Shipwreck of Antikythera

The first museum outside of Greece to exhibit the most important ancient shipwreck that has been discovered: the Antikythera Wreck, is the Museum of Ancient Art in #Basel. You can see the sensational cargo ship: masterpieces of Greek art and technology.

The exhibition "The Sunken Treasure" tells the story of a ship that sank in 70/60 BC in a storm near the island of Antikythera near Crete. The cargo ship was en route from Greece to Italy. It had wonderful Greek art for the Roman market on board ... In addition, a mysterious device was found on the seabed, consisting of bronze gears. The #Antikythera #Mechanism is regarded as a kind of ancient rcomputer and one of the most important discoveries in the history of archaeology. ...

The Basel exhibition presents not only the sensational boatload but explains why the ship had been on its way from Greece to Rome.  ..."

The Antikythera Mechanism in a still from the "Romanike" trailer video

• The German announcement of the Antikenmuseum
• The French announcement
• The Antikenmuseum's Facebook account
• A special edition of "Antike Welt" will be published in September 2015:

Results from the Antikythera expedition

Sadly, no additional parts of the Antikythera Mechanism have been found by the divers who went down to the sunken vessel that had contained it till 1901. What they had brought up, according to the reports, were coins, artwork and parts of furniture. The greatest surprise of this expedition was the ship itself that has now been thoroughly cartographed: It was the largest Roman cargo vessel ever to have sailed the Mediterranean, maybe as much as 50 meters long! This renders the reconstructions obsolete that the National Museum of Athens had still published in 2011 - they had just been seen on the Frankfurt Book Fair (see below). 

Its remains are spread over 300 meters, which is much more than the first divers who visited it in 1901 had anticipated. Better still: The ship was found to have been part of a convoy, for a second vessel has been discovered less than 250 meters nearby! The research team suggests that this other ship might still contain a duplicate of the Antikythera Mechanism - a publicity move otherwise known as the NASA Gambit: "Yes, there may be life on Mars and our next mission may find it. Fund it! Fund it!" This next mission may take place next year - unless Mummy Merkel cuts the budget of her bad children in Greece short again. 

Supplement of 2014-11-10:
A second wreck was assumed, according to this source, by a minority due to the far spreading of the findings, especially the amphorae. The majority of the researchers believes, however, that all findings originated from the same ship.
It is also mentioned here that a precious ring has been found next to a female skeleton, maybe a bride that should have been taken to her wedding.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/10/06/video-maps-antikythera-shipwreck-and-shows-new-discoveries/ 

 
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/stunning_finds_from_ancient_greek_shipwreck-146641

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29557384

New findings from Antikythera

On the current expedition at the wreck in which the Antikythera Mechanism had been found:

"... a group of Greek, American and Swiss researchers map[s] the ancient shipwreck’s immediate environs. The international team, which has already started geophysical searches using metal detectors, aims to complete its survey by October 15. ... Thus far, the group has surmised that the boat which sank off Antikythera’s coast was carrying more than just an ancient astrological device. It may have been carrying priceless works of art, too. What is more, a second shipwreck has been discovered just 250 meters away from the first. Some experts believe that the two vessels might have been traveling together. It is conceivable that a second mechanism awaits discovery in the second shipwreck."

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/09/30/samaras-to-visit-antikythera-as-famous-shipwreck-is-mapped/#sthash.xG254qkD.dpuf

"Although the scientific expedition exploring the ancient Antikythera shipwreck was launched in September 15, the discoveries have yet to be announced.

Greek newspaper “Ta Nea,” citing claims by the chairman of the “Aikaterini Laskaridis” foundation and one of the mission’s sponsors, Panos Laskaridis, revealed that the Culture Ministry leadership prohibited the scheduled presentation of the discoveries so that Culture Minister Kostas Tasoulas can announce the results in an event to be held in Athens, Greece, in the coming days.

The newspaper refers to important discoveries, including a large amount of copper coins.

It is estimated that official announcements will take place on October 9, when Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will visit the island of Antikythera."

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/10/04/mystery-covers-antikythera-shipwreck-searches/#sthash.EOlP0naF.dpuf


The site of the research project is here: http://antikythera.whoi.edu/

They also have their own youtube channel. There is not much yet on:https://www.youtube.com/user/antikythera2012

Just on time, the paper editions of the English version of "Opus Gemini" has become available via Amazon/CreateSpace!

A new expedition to the Antikythera Device

One reader has pointed out to me that a new expedition to the Roman shipwreck from which the Antikythera Mechanism was salvaged in 1901 will be launched next September. The website of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture expresses the hope that these dives will help to locate other parts of the mechanism, known only in fragments, or even a second mechanism:
"Meanwhile, ancient technology geeks like us wonder whether the site might be hiding another Antikythera mechanism, more pieces of the original, or at least some clues as to whom this mysterious object belonged to." http://antikythera.whoi.edu/about/

This information, which was reprinted in various media, was in my opinion a misunderstanding by a journalist. Some sources claimed that a part of the original Antikythera Mechanism which has been designated fragment D does not belong to the device at all and may therefore be attributable to another device. Here, the sources are not correctly quoted: Fragment D has a single gearwheel that cannot be assigned and is therefore usually omitted in modern reconstructions of the mechanism. Michael Wright, one of the best-known reconstructors, has suggested that this gear may have linked to other transmission parts that moved pointers for the planets Mercury to Saturn across the mechanism's scales - the parts known were used only for displaying the positionf of Sun and Moon and their eclipses in the past or future. This gear gives reason to hope that further parts of the Antikythera Mechanism may still be hidden near the wreck, 60 m below the surface of the sea. There is no evidence that would suggest the existence of a second device on board, however!

In any case, I will follow news of the expedition and comment on them on this blog.

The Antikythera Mechanism or Antikythera Device

In 1901, the most sophisticated device of the ancient world returned to sunlight after it had spent 2000 years in a Roman shipwreck offshore the Greek island of Antikythera. But it was as late as 1957 that this clotted lump of gearwheels, axles, scales and pointers was recognised as part of an astronomical instrument that is without known counterpart in its period or the centuries after. This instrument, known as the Antikythera Mechanism or the Antikythera Device, features a sort of clockwork that was able to display, for any freely eligible date, the positions of the sun, the moon and probably also of the visible planets, taking into account many intricacies of their varying orbits. Better still, this instrument could predict solar and lunar eclipses many years in advance!
After the turn of the millennium, the publications of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP) turned attention to this unique object. If you happen to visit the National Museum of Athens, Greece, you may find it there on display; a number of functional reconstructions are spread across technical museums world-wide.
The AMRP believes that the mechanism may have originated either in Corinth or its famous colony, Sicilian Syracuse. However, the ship that kept it contained cargo from Asia Minor and, when it sank, had set a western course - probably heading for Rome. We do not know who may have used it and for which purpose. No classic author seems to have described its function, though instruments predicting the movements of the skies are mentioned, among others, by Poseidonius and Cicero. No other device of this age was found so far - the second-oldest preserved is many centuries younger and much simpler. But one fact may be safely inferred: The Antikythera Mechanism had achieved technological maturity; it cannot have been a prototype.
The Opus Gemini trilogy, a part of the Romanike series, tells the story of the Antikythera Mechanism's lost siblings.

Fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism in Athens



Links:
The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project: www.antikythera-mechanism.gr
Michael Wright's reconstruction of the Antikythera Mechanism: http://www.mtwright.co.uk/
"Decoding the Heavens", the story of the Mechanism's discovery: http://www.decodingtheheavens.com/default.aspx
Rekonstruktion des Antikythera-Mechanismus im Astronomisch-Physikalischen Kabinett, Kassel: http://www.museum-kassel.de/index_navi.php?parent=1035