Researcher Cites Ancient Minoan-era Computer

Researcher Cites Ancient Minoan-era Computer:

This Minoan object preceded the heralded Antikythera Mechanism. If we take the definition of a computer as being a device that can compute, even at the most basic level, then this computer meets the bottom line of the definition.

A stone-made matrix has carved symbols on the surface of this computer related with the Sun and the Moon, serving as a cast to build a mechanism that functioned as an analog computer to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. The mechanism was also used as sundial and as an instrument calculating the geographical latitude. In this sense, it predates the astrolabe, an instrument of some antiquity (i.e. since Minoan times).

Researcher Cites Ancient Minoan-era Computer:

Researcher Minas Tsikritsis who hails from Crete — where the Bronze Age Minoan civilization flourished from approximately 2700 BC to 1500 century BC — maintains that the Minoan Age object discovered in 1898 in Paleokastro site, in the Sitia district of western Crete, preceded the heralded “Antikythera Mechanism” by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and “portable computer” in history.

“While searching in the Archaeological Museum of Iraklion for Minoan Age findings with astronomical images on them we came across a stone-made matrix unearthed in the region of Paleokastro, Sitia. In the past, archaeologists had expressed the view that the carved symbols on its surface are related with the Sun and the Moon,” Tsikritsis said.

The Cretan researcher and university professor told ANA-MPA that after the relief image of a spoked disc on the right side of the matrix was analysed it was established that it served as a cast to build a mechanism that functioned as an analog computer to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. The mechanism was also used as sundial and as an instrument calculating the geographical latitude.

Source: Athens News Agency [April 06, 2011]

For the definition of the astrolabe, see

Persian models dating as far back as the eleventh century have been found, and Chaucer wrote a Treatise on it in the late 1300s. But different models of astrolabes date as far back as somewhere around 400 BCE, when Theodora of Alexandra wrote a detailed treatise on the astrolabe. Historically, many different versions of the astrolabe have arisen since then. For a full account of astrolabes, consult Wikipedia: Astrolabe. But the whole point is that the Minoan computer predates even the earliest of these (vide supra), by at least 1,000 years!

By the Elizabethan era it consisted of a large brass ring fitted with an alidade or sighting rule:

Notice the astonishing resemblance between the Minoan computer and the astrolabe from 1608 above.

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For the amazing Antikythera Mechanism, see the next post.

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This Minoan object preceded the heralded Antikythera Mechanism by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and portable computer in history

This Minoan object preceded the heralded Antikythera Mechanism by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and portable computer in history

Researcher Minas Tsikritsis who hails from Crete -- where the Bronze Age Minoan civilization flourished from approximately 2700 BC to 1500 century BC -- maintains that the Minoan Age object discovered in 1898 in Paleokastro site, in the Sitia district of western Crete, preceded the heralded "Antikythera Mechanism" by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and "portable computer" in history.

"While searching in the Archaeological Museum of Iraklion for Minoan Age findings with astronomical images on them we came across a stone-made matrix unearthed in the region of Paleokastro, Sitia. In the past, archaeologists had expressed the view that the carved symbols on its surface are related with the Sun and the Moon," Tsikritsis said.  The Cretan researcher and university professor told ANA-MPA that after the relief image of a spoked disc on the right side of the matrix was analysed it was established that it served as a cast to build a mechanism that functioned as an analog computer to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. The mechanism was also used as sundial and as an instrument calculating the geographical latitude.  Source: Athens News Agency [April 06, 2011]

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This Minoan object preceded the heralded Antikythera Mechanism by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and portable computer in history. A stone-made matrix has carved symbols on its surface are related with the Sun and the Moon serving as a cast to build a mechanism that functioned as an analog computer to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. The mechanism was also used as sundial and as an instrument calculating the geographical latitude.

Previous paragraph by Rita Roberts

Is the Minoan Disc Discovered at Paleokastro in 1898 the World’s First Analog Computer?

 
Is the Minoan Disc Discovered  at Paleokastro in 1898 the World's First Analog Computer?

Researcher and university professor, Minas Tsikritsis from Crete, where Minoan civilization flourished from approximately 2700 BC to 1450 century BC, claims that a Minoan disc  discovered at Paleokastro, Western Crete, in 1898, is the world's earliest analog computer, predating the amazingly intricate “Antikythera Mechanism” by some 1,400 years. Analysis of a relief image on the right side of the matrix of the 25 gear spoked disc reveals that it served as a cast to build a mechanism serving as an analog computer used as a sundial and also to calculate solar and lunar eclipses.  This is what the 25 gear mechanism looks like (CLICK to ENLARGE):



I myself immediately noticed that it also bears a striking resemblance to the astrolabe, and appears to have been used to calculate geographical latitude.  If so, and if it served all of these functions, it was indeed an extremely complex mechanism and precise measuring apparatus, not to be rivalled until the discovery of the even more “Antikythera Mechanism” of the Hellenic Era (ca. 400-300 BCE). 
To the right of the Minoan Disc discovered in 1898, we see an analytical geometric diagram of the Labrys, one of the hallmark concrete symbols of both the Minoan & Mycenaean Civilizations.  Here again, we can clearly see that the Minoans & Mycenaeans had encoded into the Labrys precise calculations of not only the lunar year (13 cycles) but of the solar year as well... an atypical and astonishing achievement for any ancient civilization.  There appears to be a remarkable correlation of the functions of these two Minoan/Mycenaean instruments of calculation and measurement.   

To read the source article, click on this logo:

         

However, a word of warning about the so-called Minoan computer!

In rogueclassicism – quidquid bene dictum est ab ullo, meum est.  “Whatever anyone else has said well, I also have put into words.” (Translation mine)  

Minoan Antikythera Mechanism?

we find the following observation, “... Tsikritsis ... passim ... sees this — apparently — as a 25 tooth gear of some sort. One of the gears in the Antikythera Mechanism’s ‘sun-moon assembly’ has 24 teeth, so potentially this is a somewhat less ‘sophisticated’ ... method of calculation ...  it would be interesting to know the diameter of this ‘gear’ ... in order to try and figure out how large the ‘minoan mechanism’ [is] ... perhaps we should suspicious because Tsikritsis apparently also claims to have translated/decoded Linear A ... I think we’ll defer judgement on this one … 

Perhaps we should.   This still leaves us with the question, What is “Antikythera Mechanism”?  For without knowing that, it is well-nigh impossible to conjure any meaningful conception of this enigmatic Minoan Disc. We will discuss the  Antikythera Mechanism in the next post, which you will be reading first at any rate.

Richard