When a group of sponge divers discovered the remains of a wrecked Roman ship off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera, they found a rich hoard of bronze and marble statues, beautiful glassware, pottery, coins, jewellery and an ugly lump of corroded bronze. The treasures were all transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for safekeeping, and experts went to work piecing together bits of statue and completely ignoring the lumpy, rusty blob. A couple of years later, an archaeologist by the name of Valerios Stais took some time out from enjoying his excellent, Game of Thrones name, to notice a cog sticking out of the mass of corrosion and alerted his colleagues and contemporaries to the idea that this little lump could be more than it seemed. His esteemed associates then promptly dismissed the idea and completely ignored him. But the ugly duckling finally got its swan moment when, seventy years later, it was X-rayed by a pair of scientists working on the collection. The X-rays revealed a complex system of cogs and clockwork beneath the battered surface. The device's surface also bears several inscriptions including the zodiac constellations, two different calendars (both Egyptian and Corinthian), dials tracking solar and lunar eclipses and the Olympiad. After many simulations and reconstructions, expert believe the device was used to predict celestial phenomena and track the movements of celestial bodies and could be used in scientific study as well as accurately tracking the passage of time. The Antikythera Mechanism, named after the island near which it was found, is believed to be unique and insanely advanced for its time, as the latest estimations date it to around 200 BCE. No one can seem to agree on exactly where it came from, with everybody from Hipparchus to Archimedes put forwards as potential owners. What we do know, though, is that this is pretty much the earliest example of a computer that anyone has ever found. We knew those Greeks were smart, but in more of a "Pythagoras' Theorem" than a "Macbook" kind of way. We'll wager it has better battery life too.
