부산대학교 도서관

For more than a century the research on the Antikythera Mechanism engaged scientists from a wide range of scientific disciplines searching for clues, in order to solve the mystery that this unique archaeological find poses. The results so far have been spectacular enough to rewrite the History of Technology providing new aspects on the degree of technological sophistication and scientific development in the Hellenistic world. Nowadays, a new scientific research program hopes to shed new light on the study of the wreck with archaeologists retuning to the underwater site ready to conduct excavation using modern technology and new scientific methodological approaches. In order for this new endeavour to be scientifically solid, all the available data deriving from all previous expeditions, as well as the research of the finds in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, were gathered and thoroughly studied. In this paper a collection of the archaeological data concerning the Mechanism is presented side by side with a reviewed presentation of the relevant bibliography aiming to unwind the net of information created by scholars from the 1900s to present dayresearch publications. There are no direct archaeological sources (e.g. excavation journal, official archaeological report) describing the early 20th century expeditions, during which the Mechanism was found, rather than a collection of newspaper articles and the published memoires of individuals who took part in the enterprise. However, there are scientific postulations regarding the Mechanismquite early after the find was published in archaeological journals amongst other finds of the wreckin 1902-3. In the 1950s a new chapter in the study of the Mechanism opened when prof. Derek deSolla Price focused his attention on the exquisite find. His fundamental work “Gears from theGreeks” was published in 1974 and with it the story of Antikythera Mechanism reached scholars allaround the world. Since then, plenty scientific endeavors have been publishing data or postulatingtheories about the origins and the function of the Mechanism. Each one of them has been reproducing the historical and archaeological data from previous works, either without further research or with a certain amount of uncertainty founded on the indirect sources of the historical accounts, thus creating a cloud of insecurity concerning the validity of the facts. As mentioned above, this paper presents all this information in an effort to clarify the archaeological context on the discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism.
Abstract in GreekΠερίληψηΟ Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων αποτελεί ένα μοναδικό εύρημα. Η έρευνά του απασχολεί επιστήμονες προερχόμενους από ένα ευρύ φάσμα ειδικοτήτων και τα αποτελέσματά της φανερώνουν τον ανεπτυγμένο βαθμό της επιστημονικής εξέλιξης της εποχής, που κατασκευάστηκε ο Μηχανισμός, ξαναγράφοντας την ιστορία της τεχνολογίας. Μετά από έναν και πλέον αιώνα από την εύρεση του, αρχαιολόγοι επιστρέφουν στο χώρο του ναυαγίου, με σκοπό ανάμεσα σε άλλες αναζητήσεις να φέρουν νέα στοιχεία και στην έρευνα του Μηχανισμού. Στο παρόν κείμενο γίνεται η προσπάθεια, πριν ξεκινήσει η επικείμενη ανασκαφή, να συγκεντρωθούν όλα τα μέχρι στιγμής ανασκαφικά δεδομένα, που αφορούν τον Μηχανισμό και να παρουσια