A scientific detective story set against the creative and extraordinary background of ancient Greece. In the first-ever major underwater archaeology, cargo from a wreck found near the rocky island of Antikythera, between Crete and mainland Greece, was recovered and taken to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Among the priceless Ancient Greek bronze sculptures and glassware, is another bronze object no bigger than a modern laptop. At first disregarded, months later it splits apart into many broken fragments, revealing the remains of ancient inscriptions and tiny gearwheels. It is now known as the “Antikythera Mechanism”.
The film follows a modern research team as they uncover a fascinating trail of clues that has led to startling conclusions. Over more than a century, the Mechanism has gradually given up its secrets.
Somebody, somewhere in ancient Greece built an extraordinary machine that was actually a mechanical computer. The Greek genius at its height, the great and divine cosmos represented through mechanism by scientists who wished to show there was no mathematical challenge beyond their abilities. It upsets all our ideas about what the Ancient Greeks were capable of and it rewrites the history of technology.
- Direction: MIKE BECKHAM
- Production: IMAGES FIRST, ERΤ, ARTE, NHK
