Editing Antikythera mechanism (section)

=== Eastern Mediterranean and others ===
[[File:Clock Tower from Su Song's Book desmear.JPG|thumb|Su Song's Clock Tower]]

This evidence that the Antikythera mechanism was not unique adds support to the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology that was later, at least in part, transmitted to the Byzantine and [[Islamic Golden Age|Islamic worlds]], where mechanical devices which were complex, albeit simpler than the Antikythera mechanism, were built during the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="charette-06" /> Fragments of a geared calendar attached to a sundial, from the fifth or sixth century [[Byzantine Empire]], have been found; the calendar may have been used to assist in telling time.<ref name="madison-85" /> In the Islamic world, [[Banū Mūsā]]'s ''[[Book of Ingenious Devices|Kitab al-Hiyal]]'', or ''Book of Ingenious Devices'', was commissioned by the [[Caliph of Baghdad]] in the early 9th century AD. This text described over a hundred mechanical devices, some of which may date back to ancient Greek texts preserved in [[Monastery|monasteries]]. A geared calendar similar to the Byzantine device was described by the scientist [[al-Biruni]] around 1000, and a surviving 13th-century [[astrolabe]] also contains a similar clockwork device.<ref name="madison-85" /> It is possible that this medieval technology may have been transmitted to Europe and contributed to the development of mechanical clocks there.<ref name="marchant-06" />

In the 11th century, Chinese polymath [[Su Song]] constructed a mechanical clock tower that told (among other measurements) the position of some stars and planets, which were shown on a mechanically rotated [[armillary sphere]].<ref name="Auto82-47"/>