GREEN 5 - rate builder

In 1900 the Greek government organized the first underwater archaeological expedition in history. A diver looking for sponges near Antikytheraan islet northwest of Crete, had found huge statues on the sea floor.
One extraordinary find enabled archaeologists to date the wreck and gave new knowledge of ancient Greek scientific technology. Inscriptions on a few insignificant pieces of corroded metal caught the eye of Valerios Stais, and archaeologist at the Greek National Museum. He recognized the fragments as pieces of mechanism. The forms of the letters inscribed were later identified as those of the first century B.C.
Most archaeologists agreed the object was an astronomical device, but calcified material and corrosion concealed so much detail that its use was uncertain. Fifty-five years passed before British archaeologist Derek de Solla Price began assembling the pieces. The result was spectacular and surprising.
The object was an astronomical computer, a clocklike mechanism used to calculate the motions of the stars and the planets. It consisted of a box with dials on the outside and a complex assembly of gears within. According to the archaeologist, this Greek computer must have been the ancestor of all clockwork. Similar astronomical computers were described by Arab astronomers as early as A.D. 1000. Apparently they learned about them from Greek writings and passed the idea along to Europe at the time of the Crusades.
Until the discovery of the Antikythera computer, no one would have believed that the ancient Greeks had reached such an advanced level of scientific technology.

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