^^, ^
So true. Take a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanismThe mechanism has three main dials, one on the front, and two on the back. The front dial has two concentric scales. The outer ring is marked off with the days of the 365-day Egyptian calendar, or the Sothic year, based on the Sothic cycle. Inside this, there is a second dial marked with the Greek signs of the Zodiac and divided into degrees. The calendar dial can be moved to compensate for the effect of the extra quarter day in the solar year (there are 365.2422 days per year) by turning the scale backwards one day every four years. Note that the Julian calendar, the first calendar of the region to contain leap years, was not introduced until about 46 BC, up to a century after the device was said to have been built.
What's equally amazing here is when you think about the
background science and technology necessary to build this device.
Even assuming it was all done with hand tools on soft metal (bronze, brass, whatever), There had to be pre-existing rather precise cutting tools (files, "hack saws," etc.) to build this thing.
And pre-existing arithmetic to calculate the gearing, which
had to involve the concept of zero and fractional numbers.
And precise measuring devices.
Not to mention a bench vise to hold the parts while you worked on them.
How far back did all this antecedent technology go?
As the Wiki article says, "...its flawless manufacturing suggests that it may have had a number of undiscovered[10] predecessors during the Hellenistic Period."
There were also a couple of artifacts discovered elsewhere that looked similar to a modern electric battery... leading to the hypothesis that electrolytic plating of metals might have taken place in very ancient times.*
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (
Hamlet Act 1 Scene V)
Terry, 230RN
*Wouldn't it be funny if someday it were discovered that all the "solid gold" artifacts discovered in, say, King Tut's tomb, were actually just gold plated lead or something? :}