All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S04E09.Decoding.the.Mysterious.Antikythera.Mechanism.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng].1

Tonight, an ancient
mechanical device

found on a 2,000-year-old
shipwreck.

It's so complex that even
the world's top scientists

can't figure it out.

It's like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.

But who actually made it?

Known as
the Antikythera mechanism,

its origin and purpose
are shrouded in secrecy.

ANDREW NICHOLS: The entire
façade of it is covered

with writing that had
never been seen previously.

How is it possible that
this thing was made

over 2,000 years ago?

Now, we'll explore
the top theories

surrounding
this cryptic machine.

MICHAEL DENNIN: This is
essentially a device

tracking the motions
of the heavens.

What if it was made
in the future,

and traveled back to the past?

Is there any evidence
that aliens

built the Antikythera mechanism?

Can modern technology
unlock its secrets?

JONATHAN SAYRE: Suddenly,
it's capable of making

life and death decisions.

This is one of the greatest
mechanical inventions

of all time.

What is the Antikythera
mechanism?

Where did it come from?

And how does it work?

[music]

The Greek Isles, 1900.

A team of sponge divers
are on their way home

from their fishing grounds
off the coast of North Africa

when they're hit
by a powerful storm.

[thunder crashing]

The sponge divers' boat
swept into an area

off the island of Antikythera,

which is located north of Crete,

and south of the Greek mainland.

It is a rocky
and barren island

with swift currents
right off of its coast.

It's a very dangerous
and treacherous area.

So, the group is incredibly
lucky

that they don't wreck out there.

And after the storm
settles down,

they decide to go back out
and dive for sponges

one more time.

LAURENCE: Diver Elias Stadiatos
goes first.

SAMI: He's underwater
for about a minute,

and then he just jumps
back into the boat terrified.

He's mumbling about men,
women, horses in the deep.

LAURENCE: The team's captain,

Master Diver
Demetrios el Kondos,

decides to go see for himself.

JONATHAN: El Kondos
descends into the water,

and when he comes back up,
he has an arm in his hands--

a bronze arm from a statue.

The quote-unquote "bodies"
down there

were actually corroded statues
from a shipwreck.

The team can't believe

what they found.

This ship is huge.
It's 180 feet long,

even though only parts
of the cargo

and the vessel still remain.

It's clearly very old,

and it lies at a depth
of about 150 feet,

just to the north
of Antikythera Island.

SAMI: It's an incredible find,
but you have to remember,

it is the year 1900,
and scuba diving

is in its infancy.

By that, I mean the suits
are made out of canvas,

you've got copper helmets.

Scuba tanks,
not a thing yet.

And many consider this
to be the first major discovery

in underwater archaeology.

LAURENCE: Eventually,
Greek authorities ask the divers

to help salvage items
from the shipwreck.

AMORY: They start
pulling out statuary,

and pottery, and silver
and bronze coins, and jewelry.

It's an unimaginable bounty.

LAURENCE:
As the treasure haul grows,

authorities begin to ask,
what is this mysterious ship,

and where did it come from?

The coins and pottery on board
appear to be Ancient Greek

and come from about anywhere
from 80 to 50 B.C.

ANDREW: Because it's such
a huge ship

and contains many
high-end marvelous goods,

it's believed the ship
was on its way to Rome

for a triumphal parade
of Julius Caesar.

It does fit the timeline,
since Julius Caesar ruled

until his death in 44 B.C.

LAURENCE: But not everything
appears to be valuable.

JONATHAN: Amongst all
these amazing artifacts,

they find this squarish piece
of, you know,

corroded metal and dirt
that looks like a rock.

It's about seven inches wide,
and they bring it up with them,

but we're not really sure why
they even looked twice at it.

Frankly, I'm surprised
they even bothered

to bring it up
from the sea floor.

SAMI: It isn't until
a year later

that archaeologist
Valerios Stais

is going through this pile

of some of the more unimportant
artifacts that were found.

And he comes across this piece
of corroded metal,

and at first
doesn't think much of it,

until he looks inside,
and he comes across

what appears to be
a mechanical gear.

And he is confused,
he is puzzled by this.

EVAGGELOS VALLIANATOS:
Most scholars were convinced

that the gear technology

was invented primarily in Europe

maybe during the Renaissance
or later.

So, we can imagine
the astonishment and confusion

of Mr. Stais.

LAURENCE: The device is dubbed
the Antikythera mechanism,

named for where it was found.

And it's much more complex
than originally thought.

SAMI: Turns out that
they brought up

about three main pieces
of the mechanism,

with 82 separate fragments,
many of which also had gears.

But it appears that this is only
a small part of the machine.

And Stais is looking
at all of this

and trying to figure out
how it all goes together.

The fragments are not
in great shape.

I mean, they're really,

really hard to get at.

They're covered in dirt,
they're aged.

SAMI: Imagine trying
to put this thing together.

It'd be like putting together
a 3D puzzle

and all of the pieces
are the exact same color.

Two-thirds of this thing
are missing,

and the parts that we do have
are covered in sediment

because they've been sitting
at the bottom of the ocean

for 2,000 years.

LAURENCE: Faced with
these challenges,

Stais ultimately gives up,

and no one attempts to decode
the machine for decades.

Then in 1951,
a British physicist

named Derek de Solla Price
is studying the history

of scientific instruments
of the ancient world,

and he becomes fascinated
with the Antikythera mechanism.

He goes to Greece
to see it in person.

He examines what he thinks
are inscriptions on the device.

Now, that in and of itself
is remarkable,

because it's pretty uncommon
to see Greek writing

inscribed in metal.

SAMI: Many of the letters
are rubbed off

or corroded beyond recognition.

But they do manage
to translate one word,

which translates
to "ray of the sun"

in Ancient Greek.

And then,
there are other letters

which might be part of the word
"Aphrodite."

LAURENCE: As Price manages
to translate more of the text,

he develops a theory.

Most of the words
that you could read

had to do something
with the sky.

So, because of the gearing
and the inscriptions,

this is what convinced
Derek de Solla Price

that he was dealing with
an astronomical computer.

Think about that,
and really let it sink in.

This makes it a computer

that was built
more than 2,000 years ago.

SAMI: Price sketches out
a rendering of what he thinks

the original mechanism
must have looked like.

We're talking about a box
with dials on the outside.

You've got a hand-turned crank,
and on the inside,

you've got a series
of very complex gears

interlocking and interweaving
with each other.

Price believes that this device
actually calculates

the movement of the sun,
of the moon,

and possibly the planets.

What the user would have to do,
is they'd have to input,

for example, a date,

and then it would spit back out
the information for you

as to where the sun,
or the moon,

or potentially a planet
was in the sky at that time.

That is just one definition
of a computer, right?

You input information,

and then it will output data
right back to you.

JONATHAN:
The entire concept of that

is so far ahead of its time,
like over 1,000 years ahead.

Having the math,
the astronomy,

the technological prowess
to create it,

it's just completely baffling.

LAURENCE: The discovery
challenges everything

scientists thought they knew
about the ancient world.

AMORY: There weren't
astronomical

calendrical computers
in Ancient Greece.

There were sundials.

That's what we thought was
the height of their technology.

SAMI: The Ancient Greeks
get a lot of credit

for being very advanced
in the realms of places

like arts, philosophy,
architecture.

But building a computer,

that's out of the realm
of possibility.

This device should not
have existed in 80 B.C.

MICHAEL: For this level
of technology,

it's really when we start
making mechanical clocks

in the 1300s that you finally
get gears like this

on a regular basis.

And the first
analog calculators,

we really don't see
till the 1600s,

so it's like at least 1,500,
1,600 years

after this device was built.

SAMI: This is considered
to be one of the greatest

mechanical inventions
of all time.

And Price sums it up by saying
that from all we know

of Hellenistic math
and science,

we would think that a device
like this could not exist.

LAURENCE: Price spends
the next two decades

trying to uncover more answers.

Price becomes convinced
in his study

that it is
a planetary computer,

but he's never really able
to figure out who built it,

or how it could have been built
in that time period.

SAMI: So, Price works
with what he has

and with what he can see,
but remember,

there are still two-thirds
of this device missing.

So, what are those components,
what might they do,

and could they help
to truly explain

what the purpose is behind
the Antikythera mechanism?

Not only that, but the pieces
that Price does have

are all fused together.

It's almost like
a solid piece of stone.

It's very hard to discern
what's going on inside.

LAURENCE:
But it won't be for long.

LAURENCE: The mysterious
Antikythera mechanism

stumps scientists
for 10 decades.

How could something this complex
date to Ancient Greece?

And what is its purpose?

British physicist
Derek de Solla Price

thinks he knows.

JONATHAN: He believes
that the device

is an astronomical computer

that was able to track

the heavenly bodies over time.

AMORY: But the technology
that he's using

to study the mechanism

just isn't very advanced.

The best he can do

is an X-ray machine
in the 1970s.

And those images are flattened.

You can't see the detail
of the gears inside.

So, some of his conclusions are,
by necessity, educated guesses.

LAURENCE: Then in 2002,
the British Science Museum's

curator of mechanical
engineering, Michael Wright,

applies new technology
to the device.

Wright and his research partner

take radiographs of the machine

to fill in more of its
functionality.

As opposed to just a flat
two-dimensional scan,

these scans can focus
on one plane at a time,

which allows for a more
precise location

for each of these gears
inside the machine.

After analyzing his scans,

Wright believed
that this machine

was far more complex than what
Price had originally asserted,

and additionally, there was
a turntable on the inside of it

that rotated for each planet.

MICHAEL: One of the other
cool things Wright finds

is a half-white,
half-black marble

that he postulates can be used

to predict the phases
of the moon.

This is confirmation
of Price's theory

that this is
essentially a device

tracking the motions
of the heavens.

But now, we know
more specifically

what it's tracking--
the moon, the sun,

and the several planets
the Greeks were aware of.

LAURENCE: The question is,
why was it used?

In 2013, a team
at Cardiff University

performs even more
advanced scans.

Led by astrophysicist
Mike Edmunds

and mathematician Tony Freeth,

the approach that they take
is two-pronged.

They use high-resolution
surface scanning

to make their way
through all of the corrosion

and the sediment that had
built up on the device.

And they also use
a computed X-ray tomography

to get closer looks
on the inside.

What this will help them to do

is to create a highly detailed
3D image of the mechanism

for the very first time.

LAURENCE: The approach yields
yet another breakthrough.

After they were able to finish
their thousands of scans

of the 82 pieces,
something truly amazing emerges,

and that is, they find writing.

EVAGGELOS: It's extremely
difficult to read something

that is corroded.

But because they had
more advanced technology

in their scanning
of the device,

now you have hundreds,

hundreds of letters.

ANDREW: The entire façade of it
is covered with writing

that had never been seen
previously.

SAMI: Now, keep in mind
that a lot of the parts

of the machine
are still missing.

But the pieces
that they're looking at

have about 3,400 pieces of text

that are written
in Ancient Greek.

So, what they're really
looking at

is a partial user's manual
for the machine.

LAURENCE: The manual confirms
the mechanism can track stars

and planets, but it also
reveals something new.

There's a lower dial
on the back of the device

that no one has been able
to figure out yet.

But Freeth and his team,
they think they have the answer,

because there are glyphs
etched onto the segment

in the intervals of one,
five, and six months.

And Freeth thinks
that this is used

to predict the timing
of eclipses.

Now, why is this important?

Because to the Ancient Greek,

predicting eclipses
is predicting the future.

In the machine's instructions,
there are references

to the size, and even
to the colors of the eclipse.

And that's what keys Freeth in,

because eclipses don't have
colors in nature.

But what's interesting here
is that the colors

are what the Greeks used

for what they called
astral divination.

LAURENCE: In Ancient Greece,
astral divination,

or the reading of the stars,
is a vital part of daily life.

The Greeks used
this large-scale astrology

to determine the fortunes
of entire countries

and civilizations.

Eclipses were omens,
and the colors

determined whether
they were good or bad omens.

They inherited this belief
system from the Babylonians

who used to obsess over the sky
and everything in it.

They would record
whatever they saw

and the effects that it
may have had on their lives.

For instance, on the day
they set sail on a voyage,

any particular planet
is in the sky

and the ship wrecks,
the next time that planet

happens to appear,
they won't send a ship out.

Now, we might call that
superstition,

but to them
that is very, very real.

SAMI: Now, imagine the value
of being able

to have
this information in advance.

Before the Antikythera
mechanism,

if they had planted
a bunch of crops,

and then an eclipse came
and it was a bad omen,

and the crops die out,
bad luck, right?

But with this device,
they can now plan in advance,

because they know when
the eclipses are coming.

ANDREW: This would allow them
to plan far up ahead

when the best time
to make offerings to the gods,

when to plan for big events,

and especially when
to embark on campaigns

and to invade
and launch wars.

LAURENCE: If this theory
is correct,

the Antikythera mechanism
is much more significant.

JONATHAN: Suddenly,
it's capable of making

life and death decisions.

It's quite possible the device
could operate the government

and make decisions
about state craft.

LAURENCE: And as some historians
are quick to point out,

they've only recovered
a third of the machine.

Just imagine what the mechanism
may have been tracking

or predicting in its full form.

Perhaps the weather,
perhaps natural disasters.

Maybe even the rise and fall
of entire dynasties

and civilizations,
all laid out like clockwork.

LAURENCE: A map of the stars,
or a way to predict the future?

Whatever its purpose,

the ancient
Antikythera mechanism

is a technical marvel.

Scientists have been studying
this device

for over 100 years now,

ever since it was first
discovered

on that shipwreck in 1900.

And again, with something
so enigmatic,

by all rights,
something that should not exist,

you are dying to know,
what was its original purpose?

What is it meant to do?

JONATHAN: But perhaps even more,

you want to know
where it comes from,

what brilliant civilization

built this.

MICHAEL When we think about
whoever created this device,

and compare 'em to other

creative geniuses,

like Leonardo da Vinci,
Thomas Edison,

Albert Einstein,

clearly, this person
is in the same class,

if not somewhat above them

because of the nature
of the time they were in.

AMORY: Da Vinci conceived
of a helicopter

400 years before
a working one was built.

And then you have
this society in 80 B.C.

that imagines this complex
mechanical device,

the likes of which weren't seen
for another 1,500 years.

And not only
did they imagine it,

they built the thing.

So, that might have
Leonardo beat.

SAMI: But who actually made it?

Was it really
the Ancient Greeks?

I mean, the writing
inscribed on it

would suggest that it
comes from there,

but what workshop
in Ancient Greece

has the skillset to actually
build something like this?

And we know the great minds
of Ancient Greece,

and it seems that almost nobody
fits that bill.

Almost.

AMORY: Probably the only person
in Ancient Greece

who comes to mind
as maybe possessing

the constellation of skills
needed to build

something like this
is Archimedes.

ANDREW: Archimedes
is an inventor,

a scientist, an engineer,

whose fame grew

and whose legend grew
amongst those

who lived even soon after him.

AMORY: Around 50 B.C.
the Roman statesman Cicero

actually writes about Archimedes
owning a sphere

quote,
"binding the disparate motions

of the seven heavenly bodies."

Could that have been
the Antikythera mechanism?

LAURENCE: If Archimedes'
workshop is the source,

the device would be even older
than anticipated.

MICHAEL: Archimedes dies
around 212 B.C.

and archaeologists and experts

thinks the device was made
about 20 years

before the ship sank,
which would have been 80 B.C.

That's almost 130 years
after Archimedes died.

Does this rule out Archimedes?
Not necessarily.

Maybe the device
was already quite old

when it set out on this
fateful journey.

LAURENCE: Recent evidence
proves this could be possible.

Thanks to those 2013 scans,

we were able to calculate
a day zero for the machine,

or the first date
that it was calibrated,

when it started doing these
really complex calculations

of astral positions.

And this date is way before
80 B.C.

Their best guess is about
204 B.C.,

which is around
Archimedes' time.

So, maybe he started the device

and his workshop
finished it off.

LAURENCE: The device's
inscriptions

also may support this theory.

Many of these inscriptions
have to do with datings

and calendars,
which really helps us

narrow things down,
because the Greeks

did not have a simple
universal dating system.

JONATHAN: In 2008, researchers

at the Antikythera Mechanism
Research Project

discovered that the names
of the months on the device

are the same ones used
for the Corinth colonies--

one of those colonies
being Syracuse,

the home of Archimedes.

LAURENCE:
But this theory is disputed

by NYU professor Alexander Jones
in a 2017 book.

Jones considers the possibility
of Archimedes' workshop,

but ultimately rejects it,
because it doesn't line up

with where the mechanism
was found,

which was on a voyage
that was heading between Crete

and the Peloponnese.

Because we know for a fact
that the ship was headed

out of the Aegean
and into the Ionian Sea,

and Corinth and its colonies
are nowhere on that path,

so the cargo
couldn't have come from there.

LAURENCE: Around the same time,
astrophysicist Mike Edmunds

also challenges the idea
that Archimedes

or his team
created the mechanism.

Edmunds heads the Antikythera
Mechanism Research Project,

and he has something that a lot
of the other researchers don't,

because he is an astrophysicist,

and he understands
the mathematics

that the mechanism was built
to calculate.

JONATHAN: The thing is,
the mechanism

is extremely precise when it
comes to position tracking

of heavenly bodies,

but only if you're standing
in the right spot.

There are some limits,
though, to the genius

of whoever built
the Antikythera mechanism,

because it was designed
around the belief

that Earth is at the center
of the universe

and everything
goes around us.

Now, of course,
we know that's not true,

and we can calculate
the position of a celestial body

no matter what vantage point
we're coming from.

But back then,
with the math that they had.

it's all relative.

LAURENCE:
Based on Edmunds' calculations,

the Antikythera mechanism
was built

at 35 degrees north latitude.

This is where the machine
works perfectly.

Now, Archimedes lived up
at about 37 degrees,

and up there, the machine
would have worked okay,

but it would have drifted
towards inaccuracy,

because it's about
150 miles too far north.

LAURENCE: And that finding
opens up a new possibility.

AMORY: When you look
at that line

that runs through
35 degrees latitude,

through the Eastern
Mediterranean,

you realize there's not
a whole lot there.

There's Crete, there's Cyprus,
and that's about it.

And neither of those were hubs
of technology, really.

LAURENCE: This leads some
theorists to suggest

that the location
the device was built vanished.

In 1996,
author David Hatcher Childress

proposes the lost city
of Atlantis

as the Antikythera mechanism's
place of origin.

In a way, there is no more
fitting home

for the mechanism
than Atlantis.

Greek philosopher Plato
describes it

as a powerful, advanced,

mechanically superior
civilization

that was on a large island

and succumbed
to natural disasters.

LAURENCE: For centuries,
researchers have looked

for the remains
of that lost city.

MICHAEL: When you start
thinking about Atlantis,

if it existed--
and that's a big if--

there are a couple
of top candidates

for where it might have been,

and one is off Santorini.

EVAGGELOS: What the modern
Greece call Santorini,

the real name is Thera.

They had a volcano.

In 1650 B.C.E. it blew up

and destroyed two-thirds
of the island.

And it triggered off
these enormous earthquakes

and tsunamis that swallowed up
a lot of Santorini

and also impacted Crete,
and possibly any other islands

that sat in between the two.

SAMI: Now, I know most people
might think Atlantis,

it's a place of fiction, right?

But there actually was
a real-life civilization

that was submerged by water,

and they were called
the Minoans.

And many historians think that
the Minoan civilization

actually inspired
the story of Atlantis.

And the location actually
lines up with the origins

of the Antikythera mechanism--

a now-missing island
just north of Crete

that sits at 35 degrees
latitude.

LAURENCE: But not everyone
is convinced.

One of the challenges
with the Atlantis theory,

even if Atlantis existed,
is the timing.

It would have been long gone
by 80 B.C.

If this is a relic
from Atlantis,

it would have been
quite old by the time

you load it onto the ship.

Now, it's not
completely impossible,

because after all,
it's a partial thing

that survived 2,000 years
at the bottom of the sea.

It might be even older
than that.

But this one's gonna be
really difficult to prove.

Scientists have worked for over
a century to understand

the Antikythera mechanism,
yet one key question remains.

How could this device
from 80 B.C.

be so far ahead of its time?

In 1997, one author
proposes a shocking idea.

The machine may not be
as old as we think.

CAROLINE CORY: Pretty much
everyone who has studied

or even looked at or read

about the mechanism would say,

how is it possible
that this thing

was made over 2,000 years ago?

JONATHAN: That is,
until author J.H. Brennan

presents a novel new approach
to the problem.

What if it wasn't made

2,000 years ago?

What if it was made
in the future

and traveled back to the past?

AMORY: In his book "Time Travel:
A New Perspective,"

Brennan asks,
was the Antikythera mechanism

carried to Ancient Crete
from the future?

It sounds preposterous,

but does it sound
any more preposterous

than thinking that
the Ancient Greeks

made this device?
Some would say no.

JONATHAN: Its sophisticated
understanding of astronomy,

its mathematical prowess,

as well as its mechanical
engineering genius--

we have no other evidence
that this type of skill

ever existed in 80 B.C.
other than this device.

We have no other device that has

a similar level of technology.

There's no evidence
for anything else

like this mechanism in 80 B.C.

AMORY: Even pioneering
researcher Derek de Solla Price

says that finding this device
on a Roman shipwreck

is like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.

Just the fact that
it's a clockwork

gear-based mechanism
is something

we didn't think existed
in Ancient Greece.

One of the gears
on the Antikythera mechanism

is what's called
a differential gear.

ANDREW: A differential gear
is a gear

in which the cogs
are of different sizes.

So, you have a large gear

and a smaller gear.

The large gear has to spin

at a more rapid rate to keep up

with the smaller gear.

MICHAEL: So, a common
differential gear

exists in your car,
because when you make a turn,

the outer wheel has to spin
faster than the inner wheel.

SAMI: The differential gear
in the Antikythera mechanism

is used to determine the angle
between the sun, the moon,

and the phases of the moon,

and there it is, in 80 B.C.,

in this machine.

The next time that we see
a differential gear

used in a device
is in the year 1720

in a clock made by
Joseph Williamson.

And it is not in common use
until the early 1800s.

CAROLINE: Maybe now
Brennan's time travel idea

isn't so far-fetched.

If the mechanism
features technology

from 1,800 years
into the future,

how do you reconcile that?

LAURENCE: Proponents
of this theory

also point to the fact that
nothing else like it exists.

Breakthroughs in the history
of science

are generally
developed over time.

When you look at the history
of something

like the printing press,
or a telephone,

or an automobile,
there are precedents.

There are partial steps
in the development of the device

that get it to where
it is today.

We didn't just suddenly
have a Corvette.

There were a lot
of rudimentary attempts

at a vehicle that got us
to the Corvette.

JONATHAN: But the mechanism
has no precedents

in ancient times.

We have found nothing else
like this, not even close.

So, you have to ask,
where are the other devices?

Why haven't we found
any other mechanisms

that could do even a fraction
of what this one does?

MICHAEL: When we think
about clockworks,

and you wanna look
at its development

from rudimentary clockwork
to more advanced,

you're really gonna be looking
at the period

just before the Renaissance,
that's when it started.

You're not gonna be looking
at Ancient Greece.

AMORY: For all these reasons,
the idea

that the Antikythera mechanism
traveled through time

does have some supporters.

But then there are other
theorists

who are even more out there,

who say
the Antikythera mechanism

didn't just time travel,

it is the time machine.

MICHAEL: So, on the front
of the device,

you have the positions
of various objects--

the sun, the moon,
and the planets.

You then have a crank
that you use

to rotate to a particular date

that then puts
everything in the position

where they're gonna be
in the sky.

So, therefore you have a device
that is calculating

both space and time.

SAMI: When physicists
like Albert Einstein

and Stephen Hawking
talk about time travel,

the question becomes
whether or not space and time

can fold in on itself
to allow a person

to jump in between time periods.

So, those inputs on
the Antikythera mechanism,

could they be coordinates
for a journey

through space-time?

JONATHAN: The mechanism
could literally be an atlas

to the cosmos
in four dimensions,

including time.

It's a map to get you
to your destination.

LAURENCE:
But with only one-third

of the Antikythera mechanism
to examine,

its additional functions
or its possible purpose

can't be fully determined.

Nothing of what we currently
have is a time machine,

let's just be clear about that.

But could the mechanism's
missing parts

help power
a journey through time?

It makes for a fun story.

The very first time traveler
finishes their prototype.

They decide they want to encode
the instructions

in Ancient Greek,
because they've long admired

the society for its
well-known wisdom,

so much so, that that's actually
where they wanna go

on their first destination,

so they go back to Ancient Greek
in the time machine.

They're there,
some tragedy befalls them--

the shipwreck-- and poof.

The only Antikythera mechanism
is now stuck in 80 B.C.

LAURENCE: In 1968,
one influential author

suggests he knows the secret
to the Antikythera mechanism.

AMORY: In his 1968 book
"Chariots of the Gods?",

Erich Von Daniken questions
numerous ancient technologies

which he believes were too
advanced to have been created

by the humans in those
respective eras.

So, these are things
like the pyramids,

and Machu Picchu, Stonehenge,
and the Antikythera mechanism.

CAROLINE:
According to von Daniken,

the reason is clear.

These things were not created

by humans, they were made

by highly intelligent
extraterrestrials.

JONATHAN: The theory
is definitely out there,

but it attracts a lot
of believers.

If this machine is beyond
human knowledge,

what other option do we have?

AMORY: Von Daniken believes
that in the distant past,

extraterrestrials land on Earth,
they make contact with humans.

They share their knowledge
and wanna help

advance scientific progress.

And in the places
where this happens,

we see these unexplainable
advancements,

like in Ancient Egypt,
or in this case, Ancient Greece.

MICHAEL: The theory is that this
is extraterrestrial technology

given to humans that's based
on their understanding

of tracking the stars
and the planets

so that they can help
humans better understand

the universe around them.

According to von Daniken,
the reason

you have Ancient Greek language

written on the device

is that either
the extraterrestrials

built it for them and then
translated the instructions

into Ancient Greek, or taught
them how to build the device,

and the Greeks themselves
put the instructions on it.

LAURENCE: In 1999,
von Daniken publishes

"Odyssey of the Gods,"
in which he suggests

that Ancient Greece was once
a nexus of alien activity.

Von Daniken sees evidence
of this all around.

The Antikythera mechanism,
the advanced political structure

and civilization
that they build,

even the stories that
they tell about their gods.

CAROLINE: Extraterrestrials
capable of traveling

distant galaxies
would look like gods

to ancient humans.

Von Daniken believes
these visitors

are an inspiration
for the Greek gods--

Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite,

and the other residents
of Mount Olympus.

JONATHAN: Another thing
that comes up

in Greek legends is flying.

Gods fly,
chariots fly.

This is unusual in a society

where they've never seen
anything that flies

other than birds and insects.

As we know, there are no
flying vehicles

in Ancient Greece,
but maybe some came to visit.

AMORY: Is there any evidence
that aliens

visited these ancient cultures?

Not exactly.
But the Greeks and Romans

observed and recorded some
strange happenings in the sky,

and some of those accounts
are pretty curious.

LAURENCE: In 2007,
Goddard Institute astrophysicist

Richard Stothers
publishes a report

on unexplained aerial phenomena
in the ancient world.

MICHAEL: Stothers analyzes
these texts

from Ancient Greece and Rome,
and finds a ton

of unusual phenomena
in the skies at that time.

Now, some of it can be explained
as meteors and asteroids,

but a lot of it
remains unexplained.

CAROLINE: In 65 A.D.,
historian Josephus

in his "History of the Wars"
records an event in Judea

that can only be described
as a battle in the sky,

with chariots
and troops of soldiers in armor

shooting fire at each other.

ANDREW: This event
had many witnesses

and has led some people to argue

that this was an alien
encounter.

JONATHAN: Stothers compares
these accounts

to modern UFO reports,
which as we know,

our military
has begun declassifying.

AMORY: Other ancient records
describe objects in the sky

that are disc-shaped,
and metallic in texture,

and have soundless movement,
and are able to hover.

And this actually sounds
a lot like modern UFO sightings.

So, it doesn't prove that aliens
visited Ancient Greeks,

but it's interesting.

LAURENCE: Could this origin
hint at the true purpose

of the Antikythera mechanism?

AMORY: So, let's assume
just for a minute

that it is alien technology.

Well, then what was it
used for?

I mean, why give
the Greeks this machine?

CAROLINE: Von Daniken suggests
that due to its portable size,

it was probably made
as a navigation device.

It would have been
easily carried

and mounted on a ship.

JONATHAN: According to
von Daniken, the aliens

were hoping that the humans
would advance from ships at sea

to ships in the sky,
or spaceships.

This device
was ultimately designed

to navigate our solar system,
not just the Mediterranean.

LAURENCE:
Some speculate the machine

might be capable
of even more.

Don't forget all
the missing parts.

While the pieces we have
help track the planets

closest to Earth,
alien theorists

think that the full device
might have been used

to track aliens' home world,

or other navigational aids
that might have helped us

get from here to there.

JONATHAN: Alien theorists
also speculate

that there might be
a communications component

within the missing section.

Maybe it doesn't just track
the aliens' home,

maybe it is a way
of sending messages.

SAMI: Let me be very clear.

Was this incredibly
precise machine

made by highly intelligent
extraterrestrials?

No, probably not.

I mean, probably not.

JONATHAN: But I think
it is absolutely amazing

how the mechanism
inspires wonderment

in everyone who comes across it.

How did it get here,
where did it come from?

The stories that people
come up with

for this thing are incredible.

The possibilities
are endless.

LAURENCE: In 2021, a team
led by Dr. Tony Freeth

completes a significant
breakthrough--

a working model
of the Antikythera mechanism.

MICHAEL: Dating back to one
of the original researchers,

Derek de Solla Price,
many people have tried

to recreate the mechanism,

or partial versions

of the mechanism.

JONATHAN: But this one
is different.

It includes every gear,
every inscription,

and every functionality.

It even includes
the wooden case.

Everything we know,

every piece we've found,

all put together

in working order.

AMORY: It doesn't reveal
any additional functions,

but it's definitely
a useful tool to have

to see this all come together.

And it could lead
to future discoveries.

ANDREW: Freeth building
this model

has an unintended consequence.

It leads many people to argue

that the mechanism

never worked at all,

and all the theories around
its possible uses

are in fact wrong.

Over the years,
many have questioned

whether the Antikythera
mechanism ever worked.

In 1980, the American scientist

and Nobel Prize winner
Richard Feynman goes to Greece,

and he sees the Antikythera
mechanism for himself in Athens.

And he wonders whether
it could have functioned.

JONATHAN: Freeth's model works.

However, we have no proof
that the original mechanism

ever actually did.

And Freeth takes some liberties

in assuming
how certain gears fit

and how they may have
fit together.

With the benefit
of modern technology

and the ability to work
backwards,

he can kind of guesstimate
and put the thing together

the way he feels it should work.

MICHAEL: This does not mean
it's accurate to the original,

and Freeth makes no such claim.

It's not meant to be taken

as a literal reconstruction
of the mechanism.

He points out, however,
that it does prove

that something
with this functionality

could fit in a box that size.

LAURENCE: But is there
any evidence the device

ever actually functioned?

AMORY: Theorists quickly
point to the fact

that it took us
more than 120 years

since the object was found
in 1900

to build a replica
that works the same way,

and that's with hundreds
of top scientists studying it

and the benefit
of modern technology.

This just wouldn't have been
possible in 80 B.C.

ANDREW: People point out
that Freeth's model

does not look
exactly like the mechanism,

which is currently a mass lump
with no moving parts.

JONATHAN: The mechanism
is a few hunks of metal and rock

with a few gears
sticking out of it,

looking more like something from
a Frankenstein movie

or a class project
than a computer.

LAURENCE: It wouldn't be
the first time

experts were fooled.

SAMI: In the 18th century, a man
named Johann Kempelen de Pazmand

creates a clockwork
robotic chess player

that becomes known

as the Mechanical Turk.

The machine has a life-size
human head and torso

with arms that are resting
on a cabinet.

And on the cabinet
is a chess board,

and human beings come up
and play chess

against this machine,
and the machine wins.

The Turk makes
its official debut

in 1770 in Schönbrunn Palace,

which is the summer residence
of Austrian rulers.

Before it starts to play,
the audience is invited

to come up and check the machine
to see that it is actually real,

that there are no strings
moving the arms,

or no devices of any kind
allowing it to move.

But it all checks out,
and people,

when they're playing
the Mechanical Turk,

try to perform
some illegal moves,

but the machine will start
to shake its head and say "No,"

as if it's recognizing that
that move is not allowed.

It's really incredible.

LAURENCE: The Mechanical Turk
becomes a sensation

across Europe.

AMORY: It tours
European capitals in 1783,

stopping at Versailles
and playing

all of the best
chess players in the world.

It plays Benjamin Franklin,
Napoleon Bonaparte,

the King of Prussia--
brilliant minds

who all marvel at this
chess-playing automaton.

LAURENCE: But in 1834,
a series of articles

reveals the device
to be fraudulent.

MICHAEL: For 60 years
it fools everyone,

but it turns out
that it's all an illusion

with a human chess master
inside the cabinet

playing and manipulating
the machine.

JONATHAN: But even though
the Turk doesn't work

without a human operator,
it is still a brilliant design.

The device is put on display
in Philadelphia in a museum

until it burns down in 1854.

People celebrate it
as a cunning piece of clockwork,

regardless of the fact it didn't
automatically play chess.

LAURENCE: Can the same be said
of the Antikythera mechanism?

AMORY: The parallels are clear.

The Antikythera mechanism
could be the original

Mechanical Turk, and maybe
it was a showpiece,

a marvelous clockwork housed
inside of a statue

that appeared to track
the heavens

through time automatically,

but it wasn't
actually automatic.

Inside the statue
there was an operator

making it all work.

LAURENCE: Despite the questions
it raises,

most historians still believe

the Antikythera mechanism
is genuine.

We know the Greeks were big fans
of amusements and entertainment.

But if that's the case
for this device,

why engrave it all over
with the detailed instructions?

What purpose does that
serve an audience?

I don't think it was meant
to be gawked at

and for entertainment,
it was meant to be used.

AMORY: And if it didn't work,
why was it on a ship

with all of these
other marvelous treasures

bound for someone potentially
as important as Julius Caesar?

I think they thought this
was a really valuable object.

SAMI: Dozens of academics
have dedicated their lives

to studying this thing,
and it has rewritten

the history books to show
what mankind is capable of.

Our species is incredible.

We may not know what
the Antikythera mechanism

actually did, but we can take
pride in the fact

that somebody
was brilliant enough

to create this thing
over two millennia ago.

And hopefully someday soon,
there will be somebody

brilliant enough
to solve its mysteries.

Recovery efforts
continue to this day

at the site
of the Antikythera shipwreck.

In 2017, an additional gear
was recovered.

Scientists are now working
to determine its function.

Perhaps new discoveries will
unlock the machine's secrets,

or they may simply leave us
with more unanswered questions.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."