Possible Piece of Antikythera Mechanism Identified

ANTIKYTHERA, GREECE—Haaretz reports that a bronze object that may be an additional piece of the Antikythera Mechanism or a similar device was recovered from the site of a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea last year. The Anitkythera Mechanism, discovered by sponge divers in 1901, is a 2,200-year-old complicated system of cogwheels thought to have been used to calculate the movements of the sun, moon, and planets, and predict eclipses and equinoxes. An X-ray of the newly recovered bronze disc, which measures about three inches in diameter, has four metal arms, and holes for pins, shows that it bears an image of a bull. Scholars think the disc may have been a gear in the device that predicted the location of the zodiac constellation of Taurus. For more on the Antikythera shipwreck, go to “Bronze Beauty.”