Home / Series / BBC Documentaries / Aired Order / Season 2012 / Episode 93

The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer

In 1901, a group of divers excavating an ancient Roman shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, off the southern coast of Greece, found a mysterious object - a lump of calcified stone that contained within it several gearwheels welded together after years under the sea. The 2,000-year-old object, no bigger than a modern laptop, is now regarded as the world's oldest computer, devised to predict solar eclipses and, according to recent findings, calculate the timing of the ancient Olympics. Following the efforts of an international team of scientists, the mysteries of the Antikythera Mechanism are uncovered, revealing surprising and awe-inspiring details of the object that continues to mystify.

English
  • Originally Aired May 10, 2012
  • Runtime 60 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Production Code b01hlkcq
  • Network BBC
  • Created May 11, 2012 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified May 11, 2012 by
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Name Type Role
Mike Beckham Director