Найден в 1901 году.
Опровержение предположения Джонса и др. об астрологическом характере прибора: Tony Freeth - Revising the eclipse prediction scheme in the
Antikythera mechanism - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0210-9.
Фрит характеризует Антикитерский прибор как "a complex astronomical
calculating machine".
"The eclipse characteristics, such as the colour and magnitude of the eclipse, are
listed together in the inscriptions, together with a group of Index Letters for the eclipses to
which they apply. The deeply puzzling grouping and ordering of these Index Letter Groups was
solved with a simple mathematical model, which both explained these groups and the distribution
of the glyphs round the Saros Dial—revealing an eclipse prediction scheme of
extraordinary sophistication and ambition"
Cтатья Джо Маршана 2016 года о том, что прибор мог использоваться гадателями: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/worlds-first-computer-may-have-been-used-tell-fortunes-180959335.
ALEXANDER JONES
Leon Levy Director
Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity
alexander.jones@nyu.edu
https://isaw.nyu.edu/people/faculty/isaw-faculty/alexander-jones
Оттуда:
The researchers have also gleaned new details from the text on the back face of the mechanism, which describes upcoming eclipses. They were surprised to find references to the color and size of each eclipse, as well as the expected winds during each event.
There is no basis in astronomy for such predictions, says Jones. An eclipse's characteristics have no astronomical significance, nor is there a way to accurately predict an eclipse's color. But it was widely believed in the Greek world that such characteristics could predict the weather, as well as “large-scale astrology”—the fortunes of countries and peoples. The Greeks inherited this belief from the Babylonians, whose priest astronomers obsessively watched the skies for bad omens.
