A 2,000-year-old shipwreck held a bronze computer that predicted eclipses

Sponge divers found the wreck off the Greek island Antikythera in 1901, but the corroded bronze lump they recovered sat unexplained for decades. X-ray and CT scans eventually revealed over 30 interlocking gears modeling the Moon's phases, planetary positions, and eclipse cycles. Nothing as mechanically complex reappears in the historical record for another thousand years.

— Jo Marchant, Decoding the Heavens — 2008
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