Case file · High strangeness
The Antikythera mechanism and the 'ancient astronaut' claim
Sponge divers recovered a corroded bronze device from a 1st-century BC shipwreck off Antikythera in 1901; ancient-astronaut writers later cited it as technology too advanced for its age.
1901 CE · 35.87, 23.31 · status: explained
The account
X-ray and CT studies, from Derek de Solla Price in the 1950s–70s to the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project after 2005, showed a hand-cranked geared calculator that modelled the Sun, Moon, eclipses and the four-year cycle of the Panhellenic games. Its complexity is unmatched by any surviving object until medieval astronomical clocks.
The sceptical view
Its gears, Greek inscriptions and astronomy fit Hellenistic science described by Cicero and others; no evidence points to outside help, only to lost workshop traditions.