In 1900, just off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera and at a depth of about 45 metres, a group of sponge divers discovered the wreck of a Roman cargo ship. Among the bronze and marble statues, pottery, and jewellery that were retrieved in the next months, there was also an artefact that would puzzle scientists for the next hundred years: the Antikythera mechanism. At first, it was dismissed as just a lump of wood and metal, but when a gear was discovered […]