Watching a short doc on the Antikythera mechanism & wreck.
That little mechanism is a trip & a half, I tellya what.
The Ancient Greeks used gears in millworks, & were skilled at casting bronze; nobody had ever seen anything like the mechanism before, when it was recovered. People at the time thought such precision engineering was beyond the Ancient Greeks.
Yeah, apparently not.
I'm of the opinion that modern people don't give our ancestors enough credit for their technological skills. Like when people think the Mayan or Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens, because ancient humans supposedly couldn't have pulled it off.
Well, they *did* pull it off, often with extremely simple engineering tech (like plumb lines, water levels, etc.). In some ways maybe our long-dead ancestors were *more* clever than we are, because they had to figure shit out for the first time, while we have the benefit of their expertise.
Although, the passing down of learning, history, skill, tech, etc. isn't by any means a long, unbroken line. I mean, we've gone through Dark Ages before, & probably will again, during which knowledge is lost.
Back to the Antikythera Mechanism... dude named Michael Wright built a possible replica. It's absolutely beautiful & tantalizing.
What I always wonder, when I see unique artifacts like the Mechanism, is what steps brought its creator(s) to the final mechanism?
I'm watching this modern engineer use compasses & files & prefab brass plates, & I wonder: did the maker(s) of the Antikythera Mechanism have the same tools? Did they use the same techniques?
& how long did they have to study in order to be able to make something so exquisite?
Not just how did the *maker(s)* study as individuals, but how many years & attempts, how many generations, to perfect the skills needed for *anyone* to make the thing?
Every time I see an artifact, I see an object that tells its own story - but there's also a lot of unspoken stories too. Like, in order to make bronze weaponry, what do you need to know to do that? Is it cast bronze? Forged? Well, before you figure out how to make bronze, you need the *tools* to make it...
How long did it take to figure out smelting? The crucible? Tongs & gloves? Oh, you're using gloves? Well then you have animal husbandry & textile work involved; how did they figure those out?
@Impious_Jade you might be interested in a book called Cræft
An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands.
while it's heavily based on England/European history, it still might be of interest if you like the why of things
@redenigma Oh cool, I'll have to check it out! Thanks :)
& so on.
Technologies build on other technologies, they don't stand alone.
Anyway, here's the Wikipedia article on the Antikythera Mechanism, for an introductory overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism