Where was the mechanism found?

In a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera

Where is the mechanism kept?

National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Antikythera Mechanism Quiz: An Ancient Greek Gear Computer

This antikythera mechanism quiz peers into corroded bronze gears. Play 10 interactive questions on sponge divers finding a Roman-era shipwreck off Antikythera, fragments recovered in 1901, gears that predicted eclipses and tracked the Sun and Moon, a dial for the Olympic Games, Derek de Solla Price, X-ray scans and its home in Athens.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Found
Where was the mechanism found?
Divers
Who discovered the shipwreck?
When
When were the fragments recovered?
Made
What are its gears made of?
Eclipse
What could the mechanism predict?
Track
What did it track in the sky?
Games
Which event cycle did one dial show?
Price
Which scholar studied it in depth in the 20th century?
Scan
Which technology revealed hidden inscriptions?
Museum
Where is the mechanism kept?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Where was the mechanism found?
Answer: In a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera
Between Crete and the Peloponnese.
Q2: Who discovered the shipwreck?
Answer: Sponge divers
Around 1900.
Q3: When were the fragments recovered?
Answer: 1901
From the seabed.
Q4: What are its gears made of?
Answer: Bronze
Now heavily corroded.
Q5: What could the mechanism predict?
Answer: Eclipses
Using astronomical cycles.
Q6: What did it track in the sky?
Answer: Positions of the Sun and Moon
And likely the planets.
Q7: Which event cycle did one dial show?
Answer: The Olympic Games
A four-year cycle.
Q8: Which scholar studied it in depth in the 20th century?
Answer: Derek de Solla Price
He called it a computer.
Q9: Which technology revealed hidden inscriptions?
Answer: X-ray CT scanning
In the 2000s.
Q10: Where is the mechanism kept?
Answer: National Archaeological Museum, Athens
In Greece.

Bronze Gears That Modeled the Sky

Around 1900, sponge divers discovered a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. In 1901, among statues and pottery, they recovered corroded lumps of bronze that turned out to be gears from an extraordinary device.

The Antikythera mechanism, built around the second or first century BC, used interlocking bronze gears to model the heavens. It tracked the positions of the Sun and Moon, likely the planets, and predicted eclipses. One dial even showed the four-year cycle of the Olympic Games.

Scholar Derek de Solla Price studied it deeply and called it an ancient computer. X-ray CT scans in the 2000s revealed hidden inscriptions. It is displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

What This Quiz Teaches

History and science fans will enjoy these questions.

Where it was found
What it was made of
What it predicted
Who studied it
Where it is kept

Did You Know?

Nothing comparable survives from that era.
It once sat in a wooden box.
Researchers build working replicas.
Its maker is unknown.
Greek astronomy was highly advanced.