UKReb
Command Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2007
- Messages
- 2,436
Not TS related or even miltary history and neither is the subject on my usual reading list but this book was recommended to me by a somewhat nerdy archeological but very good pal and have to admit he was correct as I found it totally absorbing and a veritable page turner.
You may be familar with the "Antikythera Mechanism" but this book relates the fascinating story of what is described as "the historical find" of the 20th century. In 1901 sponge divers found an ancient Greek/Roman shipwreck dating from 70BC. Amongst the haul of vases; statues; coins was a very corroded mechanical device of such complexity, that according to all the experts and text books, shouldn't have existed for another millennium. Ignored for many years as just a lump of metal the book relates the riveting 100 year saga of scholarly detective work to discover the workings of this mechanism come clockwork computer and where it originated. The first scientists/historians to examine the piece believed it to have originated in Rhodes and was part of Julius Caesar's loot being transported back to Rome when the galley sank off the Greek island of Antikythera during a storm.
What follows is a very fast moving story that reads at times like a real-life Da Vinci Code-full of fascinating scientific digressions that raises many questions about civilisation's relationships with knowledge and how little we know about our ancient forefathers. Thoroughly recommended and guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck-well it did mine.
Reb
You may be familar with the "Antikythera Mechanism" but this book relates the fascinating story of what is described as "the historical find" of the 20th century. In 1901 sponge divers found an ancient Greek/Roman shipwreck dating from 70BC. Amongst the haul of vases; statues; coins was a very corroded mechanical device of such complexity, that according to all the experts and text books, shouldn't have existed for another millennium. Ignored for many years as just a lump of metal the book relates the riveting 100 year saga of scholarly detective work to discover the workings of this mechanism come clockwork computer and where it originated. The first scientists/historians to examine the piece believed it to have originated in Rhodes and was part of Julius Caesar's loot being transported back to Rome when the galley sank off the Greek island of Antikythera during a storm.
What follows is a very fast moving story that reads at times like a real-life Da Vinci Code-full of fascinating scientific digressions that raises many questions about civilisation's relationships with knowledge and how little we know about our ancient forefathers. Thoroughly recommended and guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck-well it did mine.
Reb