Time Traveling is real?

The Mystery:

 

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient, intricate machine found in a shipwreck near Greece that dates back to about 100 BC. The Antikythera mechanism contains gears and structures that were not found in devices again for 1000 years, and only then when the Muslims and Chinese were busy inventing shit while the Europeans were busy killing each other.

Why Can’t They Solve It?

First, no one can agree on where the Antikythera mechanism was made or who designed it. Popular belief was that it was made by the Greeks due to its instructions all being in Greek (about a million of our tax dollars were probably spent arriving at that genius conclusion) but serious research published in serious places suggested the design came from Sicily.

The mechanism, aside from placing you at serious risk for severing a finger, was supposedly used to figure out astronomical positions. The problem with that is that at the time this thing was made, no one had yet discovered laws of gravity or how heavenly bodies moved.

In other words, the Antikythera mechanism appears to have functions that no one alive at that time would have understood, and no single mechanical purpose of that era (such as navigating ships) explains the crazy number of functions and settings this machine has.

It’s a scrap from a time machine that exploded the moment it arrived in the past

On the one hand, I love the mystery of things like this. They’re cool, they’re ancient, and I love me some old secrets from days gone by.

One the other hand entirely, I have a few things to say. We LOVE to talk about how the ancient peoples didn’t know shit. We like to think that we’ve gotten more civilized, that none of what the ancients had figured out was anything close to what we know, and that they all probably worshipped their beards or something. “Oh yeah, the ancients all totally believed that rain was just God crying, totally.” We eat that up. 

But there’s two things wrong with that, ESPECIALLY in regards to things like this (and other engineering marvels). To start with, we really don’t have the best view of what the ancients knew. In the various Mediterranean cultures, all of the great writings and knowledge was eventually brought to the Great Library in Alexandria. For about 500 years this place held all the knowledge of the world. Thousands of books and scrolls. 

And then it burned. Twice. 

We lost a LOT of what the ancients knew because of that. Philosophy, science, stories, history, so much was lost due to these fires, and we can never even come close to figuring out what was lost there. There is significant possibility that the ancients knew s much more than what we give them credit for, but we’ll never know, because it burned in a fire.

Secondly, in regards to this specific piece of machinery and other bits in particular, the ancients knew a LOT about astronomy and how the planets and stars moved. In cultures where the planets may have been regarded as the Gods in the sky, and where oftentimes people might’ve believed that everything was controlled by the movements of these bodies, it was utterly imperative that you know how they move. If you understand the movement of the stars, you can predict the future! (or, at least, act like it). Many ancient societies based whole monuments upon the movement of the heavenly bodies, from Stonehenge to the Pyramids. Others, like the Mayans, wrapped up an entire culture in the movement of them, tracking their calendar by the stars themselves. The ancient cultures as a whole relied on astronomy much more than people today might. 

As a last point about this device, it came with an instruction manual of sorts, meaning that it was designed for use by a non-expert, and created by someone who knew what they were talking about. Don’t see many pieces of the TARDIS flying around with instruction manuals on them, do you? 

In conclusion, the Antikythera Device is an INCREDIBLE piece of machinery, and gods only know I would love to understand more about it. But don’t let it fool you into thinking it came from the future or aliens, let it invite you to try to seek out more knowledge about the cultures that came before us and the brilliance of their inventors!

But now, if you really want some absolutely crazy, we-can’t-even-slightly-explain-it stuff, check out the Voynich Manuscript. Written in a language no one knows or can read, about fanciful items and biology no one knows about. 

Wait.

Maybe THIS is the time travel bit we’re looking for. Maybe this is the Doctor’s Journal! Check the first few pages to see if it might read “Hello, Sweetie.”

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