MORE ON THE BRASS BALL
July 29, 2009 at 3:17 PM 3 comments
I hadn’t planned another post on this topic, but this is too good to pass up.
New Scientist has an updated report today in its Short Sharp Science blog about the Brass Ball which I discussed in an earlier post. It seems the latest discovery pushes back the creation of the particular sample of the device in time. Among its tricks and inscriptions is the calculation of the timing of various olympic festivals, including one that was no longer practiced after the second century BCE. The full story even has an animation of the internal workings of the gearing, though I haven’t tried loading it yet on my own ancient machine.
Clearly, if these things had spread widely enough to be luxury goods in a “small market” Greek colony, they were not confined to the laboratory of a single genius, as the original New Scientist report had indicated.
Entry filed under: archeology, Book of Mormon, history, Mormon Scripture. Tags: Antikythera mechanism.
The Fire Still Burning 
1.
Mormon Heretic | July 30, 2009 at 2:28 AM
Thanks for posting this. I think it’s fascinating what you’ve found.
I couldn’t get the sound on the animation to work.
2.
FireTag | July 30, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Thanks, MH. I don’t think that there is any sound track with the viseo, since it’s computer generated..
3.
Scientific Mood Swings | Wheat and Tares | January 8, 2011 at 11:41 AM
[…] I noted in a report on ancient technology recovered in a shipwreck, the Greeks developed sophisticated navigational devices and found their most important use to be […]