Papers by Yanis Bitsakis
The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known advanced scientific instrument. Without doubt, it i... more The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known advanced scientific instrument. Without doubt, it is the oldest known analogue computer made with gears and the first known Mechanical Universe and probably Planetarium. Not only was an astronomical instrument suitable for observations, but it also served as a climatological and meteorological device. Certainly, such devices were in use as educational instruments in Antiquity and possibly operated as a cartographic tool. Made by Greek scientists with appropriate knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, physics, engineering and metallurgy, the bronze geared device enabled the constructor to perform specific calculations with gear trains and the user to find the position of celestial bodies in the sky. It was constructed during the Hellenistic period, probably around 150 to 100 BC. The Antikythera Mechanism depicts the position of the Sun, the Moon (its phase), predicts eclipses and shows when the Greek Crown Games should occur: the Olympics, the Pythian, the Isthmian, the Nemean, the Naan, some of the very important festivities that enable the common person to keep the time in a functional calendar very useful in agricultural, fishing and hunting.
We give a brief report on the aims and objectives of a new international research effort to inves... more We give a brief report on the aims and objectives of a new international research effort to investigate the Antikythera Mechanism. The extraordinary nature and importance of the mechanism is emphasized, and the new techniques employed are outlined. As well as addressing the question of the functions of the mechanism, the project will provide a generally available web-based experimental database.
Nature 454 (2008), 614-617
The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and an... more The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and analogue computer known and was assembled sometime between 150 and 100 BCE, almost a century after the death of Archimedes. The mechanism has a great educational potential as it appeals to inquiring minds as an astonishing artefact of science and technology. The latest research findings reveal significant cultural and social functions in its operations. This astonishing astronomical instrument has a clear interdisciplinary valueand it has that it may be used as an educational medium, to engage the general public, and especially to attract students both to/from exact sciences and to/from the humanities. The astronomical and technical knowledge embedded in the mechanism can also be used to introduce some aspects of modern science through the unknown technological achievements of Hellenic antiquity.
The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and an... more The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and analogue computer known and was assembled sometime between 150 and 100 BCE, almost a century after the death of Archimedes. The mechanism has a great educational potential as it appeals to inquiring minds as an astonishing artefact of science and technology. The latest research findings reveal significant cultural and social functions in its operations. This astonishing astronomical instrument has a clear interdisciplinary valueand it has that it may be used as an educational medium, to engage the general public, and especially to attract students both to/from exact sciences and to/from the humanities. The astronomical and technical knowledge embedded in the mechanism can also be used to introduce some aspects of modern science through the unknown technological achievements of Hellenic antiquity.
Journal of Archaeological Science, May 2007
Determination of the species origin of historic objects is one of the common tasks of ancient DNA... more Determination of the species origin of historic objects is one of the common tasks of ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis. DNA recovered from archaeological and palaeontological remains allows going back in time and revealing the genetic signature of several human tools. Comparisons of this signature with DNA sequence from recent animals (wild and domestic goats) from several Mediterranean regions are expected to allow us to identify a geographical origin for the biological material used to produce the Greek parchment manuscripts. Here, we have realised an experiment based on which it is possible to recover DNA from ancient parchment fragments (three Greek parchment manuscripts of relatively recent age: 13th to 16th century AD). The analysis of the three Greek manuscripts has shown that most signature documents have goat-related sequences (Capra spp.). As demonstrated, DNA of animals whose skins furnished the parchment pages of ancient and medieval books may survive in that parchment, enabling not only to determine the species of the animal from which the skin had been taken, but moreover, it might even be possible to reconstitute the history of the herds from which they originated.
Exhibition Catalogues by Yanis Bitsakis
The Antikythera Shipwreck: The technology of the ship, the cargo, the Mechanism, Nov 11, 2012
Conference Presentations by Yanis Bitsakis
"This paper reports results from the implementation of a research project funded by national reso... more "This paper reports results from the implementation of a research project funded by national resources (“Herakleitos”, project number 70/3/11011) titled: “Pedagogical aspects of the history of the Antikythera Mechanism”.
The first part of our project involves the study of the history of the various attempts to construct an accurate model of the mechanism. We start by examining the first model designed by Theophanides, then we proceed to the model of De Solla Price drawn after the gamma-ray examination of the remnants of the mechanism, then to the model of Allan Bromley, who used linear tomography with Michael Wright to examine parts of the mechanism, and finally we study the research model of Michael Wright revising crucial features of older models. In all models, the number of teeth, and examination of the way the gears meshed, show that the gear ratios can be associated with astronomical and calendrical parameters and allow a description of how the device must have functioned.
Our research focuses on the interplay between historical hypotheses and experimental findings in model construction, thus highlighting important aspects of the nature of science. Issues concerning the relations between science and technology and of scientific and technological heritage will also be discussed.
The second part of our research involves the design of a teaching activity which introduces students of the Greek Middle School (Gymnasium) to the function of the mechanism and especially the function of the gear systems.
During this activity the students is expected to develop an understanding of the concepts of Speed, Force and Rotational Force (Torque) related to their Science course and an understanding of how simple machines work related to their Technology course.
The Students perform measurements using various gears in various combinations tabulating their results. Specifically they study how changing gear numbers and ratios change speed and direction. Also by attaching various weights to the gears they study torque (rotational force).
At the end of this activity the students will be able to explain gear ratios, the relationship between torque and speed, or force and speed and the purpose of each of the different mechanisms and will develop skills related to measurement, unit conversion and reading diagrams.
In the last phase of the activity, the students enter a project where they are asked to design a system of gears to simulate the motion of the sun and the moon in an ideal circular orbit, constructing their own model of a mechanism."
The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and an... more The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated extant ancient astronomical instrument and analogue computer known and was assembled sometime between 150 and 100 BCE, almost a century after the death of Archimedes. The mechanism has a great educational potential as it appeals to inquiring minds as an astonishing artefact of science and technology. The latest research findings reveal significant cultural and social functions in its operations. This astonishing astronomical instrument has a clear interdisciplinary valueand it has that it may be used as an educational medium, to engage the general public, and especially to attract students both to/from exact sciences and to/from the humanities. The astronomical and technical knowledge embedded in the mechanism can also be used to introduce some aspects of modern science through the unknown technological achievements of Hellenic antiquity.
The Antikythera Mechanism was found by chance, in a shipwreck, close to the small island of Antik... more The Antikythera Mechanism was found by chance, in a shipwreck, close to the small island of Antikythera (between Crete and Peloponnese) in April 1900, by sponge divers, who were stranded there, due to bad weather. The shipwreck was dated from between 86 and 67 B.C. (coins from Pergamon). The Mechanism was probably built in Rhodes and has been dated, by epigraphologists, around the second half of the 2nd century B.C. (100 – 150 B.C.). About this time the great Greek astronomer Hipparchos lived in Rhodes. He died there in 120 B.C. It was a portable (laptop-size), geared artefact which calculated and displayed, with high precision, the movement of the Sun and the Moon on the sky, the phase of the Moon for a given epoch and could predict eclipses. It had one dial on the front and two on the back. Its gears were driven by a manifold, with which the user could set a pointer to any particular epoch (at the front dial). While doing so, several pointers were synchronously driven by the gears, to show the above mentioned celestial phenomena on three accurately marked annuli. It contained an extensive user manual. The exact function of the gears has finally been decoded and a large portion of the manual has been read after 2000 years by a major new investigation, using state of the art equipment.
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Papers by Yanis Bitsakis
Exhibition Catalogues by Yanis Bitsakis
Conference Presentations by Yanis Bitsakis
The first part of our project involves the study of the history of the various attempts to construct an accurate model of the mechanism. We start by examining the first model designed by Theophanides, then we proceed to the model of De Solla Price drawn after the gamma-ray examination of the remnants of the mechanism, then to the model of Allan Bromley, who used linear tomography with Michael Wright to examine parts of the mechanism, and finally we study the research model of Michael Wright revising crucial features of older models. In all models, the number of teeth, and examination of the way the gears meshed, show that the gear ratios can be associated with astronomical and calendrical parameters and allow a description of how the device must have functioned.
Our research focuses on the interplay between historical hypotheses and experimental findings in model construction, thus highlighting important aspects of the nature of science. Issues concerning the relations between science and technology and of scientific and technological heritage will also be discussed.
The second part of our research involves the design of a teaching activity which introduces students of the Greek Middle School (Gymnasium) to the function of the mechanism and especially the function of the gear systems.
During this activity the students is expected to develop an understanding of the concepts of Speed, Force and Rotational Force (Torque) related to their Science course and an understanding of how simple machines work related to their Technology course.
The Students perform measurements using various gears in various combinations tabulating their results. Specifically they study how changing gear numbers and ratios change speed and direction. Also by attaching various weights to the gears they study torque (rotational force).
At the end of this activity the students will be able to explain gear ratios, the relationship between torque and speed, or force and speed and the purpose of each of the different mechanisms and will develop skills related to measurement, unit conversion and reading diagrams.
In the last phase of the activity, the students enter a project where they are asked to design a system of gears to simulate the motion of the sun and the moon in an ideal circular orbit, constructing their own model of a mechanism."
The first part of our project involves the study of the history of the various attempts to construct an accurate model of the mechanism. We start by examining the first model designed by Theophanides, then we proceed to the model of De Solla Price drawn after the gamma-ray examination of the remnants of the mechanism, then to the model of Allan Bromley, who used linear tomography with Michael Wright to examine parts of the mechanism, and finally we study the research model of Michael Wright revising crucial features of older models. In all models, the number of teeth, and examination of the way the gears meshed, show that the gear ratios can be associated with astronomical and calendrical parameters and allow a description of how the device must have functioned.
Our research focuses on the interplay between historical hypotheses and experimental findings in model construction, thus highlighting important aspects of the nature of science. Issues concerning the relations between science and technology and of scientific and technological heritage will also be discussed.
The second part of our research involves the design of a teaching activity which introduces students of the Greek Middle School (Gymnasium) to the function of the mechanism and especially the function of the gear systems.
During this activity the students is expected to develop an understanding of the concepts of Speed, Force and Rotational Force (Torque) related to their Science course and an understanding of how simple machines work related to their Technology course.
The Students perform measurements using various gears in various combinations tabulating their results. Specifically they study how changing gear numbers and ratios change speed and direction. Also by attaching various weights to the gears they study torque (rotational force).
At the end of this activity the students will be able to explain gear ratios, the relationship between torque and speed, or force and speed and the purpose of each of the different mechanisms and will develop skills related to measurement, unit conversion and reading diagrams.
In the last phase of the activity, the students enter a project where they are asked to design a system of gears to simulate the motion of the sun and the moon in an ideal circular orbit, constructing their own model of a mechanism."