Antikythera mechanism 21cm

Miniature of antikythera mechanism made from high quality  Cold Cast Bronze.

Dimensions 21cmX16cmX5cm

The Antikythera mechanism  is an ancient analog computer and the oldest known complex scientific calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in April of 1900 by sponge divers in a shipwreck near Antikythera island (Greece), but its significance and complexity were not understood until a century later.

It is estimated that the mechanism was made about 87 BC and was lost only a few years later. One hypothesis is that the device was constructed at an academy founded by the Stoic philosopher Posidonius on the Greek island of Rhodes, which at the time was known as a center of astronomy and mechanical engineering; this hypothesis further suggests that the mechanism may have been designed by the astronomer Hipparchus, since it contains a lunar mechanism which uses Hipparchus's theory for the motion of the Moon. The ship was Roman though the antikythera mechanism was developed in Greece.  One theory suggests that the reason it came to be on the Roman ship could be because the instrument was among the spoils of war garnered by then Roman emperor Julius Caesar.