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The Portable Byzantine Sundial Calendar: The Second Oldest Geared Mechanism in Existence

December 8, 2021

Looking for the link that connects the mechanism of Antikythera with today’s mechanics, we have to count also the Byzantine portable sundial-calendar that is on display in London, at the London Science Museum. The bronze find consists of four fragments, among which are well-formed and well-worked cogwheels (gears).

The clock, just like the Antikythera mechanism, can "show" the time and day in 16 different cities-regions of the known world in Greek (Constantinople, Siini-Aswan, Thebes, Africa, Alexandria, Antioch, Rhodes, Athens, Sicily, Thessaloniki, Rome, Dalmatia, Dioclea, Caesarea Sratonos, Palestine and Ascalon), as well as the relative positions of the sun and moon and the phases of the moon. This is also a masterpiece that is obviously based on deep knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and technological achievements, such as metalworking, automation and gear construction.

It may be almost half a millennium after the mechanism but it is a tangible proof that no knowledge was lost in the meantime. There may be a lag in the development or expansion of knowledge but no loss.

This device, consisting of a sundial and geared mechanical calendar, is the second oldest known of its kind. The earliest known example is the Antikythera Mechanism.

In Byzantine Middle Ages Tags Greatest Inventions
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