Editing Antikythera mechanism (section)

===Origin===
The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known analogue computer.<ref name=angelakis2006/> The quality and complexity of the mechanism's manufacture suggests it must have had undiscovered predecessors during the [[Hellenistic period]].<ref name=allen-07/> Its construction relied on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers during the second century BC, and it is estimated to have been built in the late second century BC<ref name=freeth-06/> or the early first century BC.<ref name="Auto82-22"/><ref name="freeth-12" />

In 2008, research by the ''Antikythera Mechanism Research Project''<ref name="isaw/antikythera">{{cite web |title=The Antikythera Mechanism |url=https://isaw.nyu.edu/research/antikythera-mechanism |website=Institute for the Study of the Ancient World |publisher=[[New York University]] |access-date=16 May 2025 |language=en |date=25 February 2011}}</ref><ref name="a-m.gr">{{cite web |title=Antikythera Mechanism Research Project |url=http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/ |website=www.antikythera-mechanism.gr}}</ref> suggested the concept for the mechanism may have originated in the colonies of [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], since they identified the calendar on the [[Metonic cycle|Metonic]] Spiral as coming from Corinth, or one of its colonies in northwest Greece or Sicily.<ref name="freeth-08" /> [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] was a colony of Corinth and the home of [[Archimedes]], and the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project argued in 2008 that it might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes.<ref name=freeth-08/> It was demonstrated in 2017 that the calendar on the Metonic Spiral is of the Corinthian type, but cannot be that of Syracuse.<ref name="Auto82-23"/> Another theory suggests that coins found by [[Jacques Cousteau]] at the wreck site in the 1970s date to the time of the device's construction, and posits that its origin may have been from the ancient Greek city of [[Pergamon]],<ref name="Freeth_SA" /> home of the [[Library of Pergamum]]. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in importance only to the [[Library of Alexandria]] during the Hellenistic period.<ref name="Auto82-24"/>

The ship carrying the device contained vases in the [[Rhodes|Rhodian]] style, leading to a hypothesis that it was constructed at an academy founded by [[Stoicism|Stoic]] philosopher [[Posidonius]] on that Greek island.<ref name="Auto82-25"/> Rhodes was a busy trading port and centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to astronomer Hipparchus, who was active from about 140–120 BC. The mechanism uses Hipparchus' theory for the motion of the Moon, which suggests he may have designed or at least worked on it.<ref name=marchant-06/> It has been argued the astronomical events on the [[Parapegma]] of the mechanism work best for latitudes in the range of 33.3–37.0 degrees north;<ref name="Auto82-26"/> the island of Rhodes is located between the latitudes of 35.85 and 36.50 degrees north.

In 2014, a study argued for a new dating of approximately 200 BC, based on identifying the start-up date on the [[Saros (astronomy)|Saros]] Dial, as the astronomical lunar month that began shortly after the new moon of 28 April 205 BC.<ref name="Carman Evans" /><ref name="NYT-20141124-JM"/> According to this theory the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction fits much better with the device's predictive models than the traditional Greek trigonometric style.<ref name="Carman Evans" /> A study by Iversen in 2017 reasons that the prototype for the device was from Rhodes, but that this particular model was modified for a client from Epirus in northwestern Greece; Iversen argues it was probably constructed no earlier than a generation before the shipwreck, a date supported by Jones in 2017.<ref name="Auto82-27"/>

Further dives were undertaken in 2014 and 2015, in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism.<ref name=NYT-20141124-JM /> A five-year programme of investigations began in 2014 and ended in October 2019, with a new five-year session starting in May 2020.<ref name="Auto82-28"/><ref name="Auto82-29"/>

In 2022, researchers proposed the mechanism's initial calibration date, not construction date, could have been 23 December 178 BC. Other experts propose 204 BC as a more likely calibration date.<ref name="AT-20220412"/><ref name="ARX-20220328"/> Machines with similar complexity did not appear again until the fourteenth century, with early examples being [[astronomical clock]]s of [[Richard of Wallingford]] and [[Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio|Giovanni de' Dondi]].<ref name=marchant-06 />