In 1901, off the coast of Antikythera, Greece, a group of sponge divers accidentally came across a shipwreck strewn with naked corpses on the seafloor. Alarmed, they reported the discovery to the authorities—only to realize it was in fact a vessel laden with marble statues and exquisite artifacts. This accidental find triggered a large-scale underwater excavation and archaeological operation. The recovered antiquities were transferred to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Over 120 years later, scientists finally began to unravel the mystery, concluding that the wreck might have been an official ship that disappeared while conducting astronomical observations at sea sometime before the Common Era.
But how do we know the purpose of a ship that sank more than 2,000 years ago? Among the recovered relics was an unassuming 30-centimeter wooden box, encrusted with marine sediment. At first glance it appeared ordinary, but as the sand slowly eroded under the effects of sunlight, sea breeze, and air exposure, a complex mechanism was revealed—comprising bronze plates, gears, axles of varying lengths, and pointers.
Bronze was an extremely valuable metal 2,000 years ago, suggesting that this device was of significant importance. But what exactly was it? What was its function? Scientists dared not disassemble it carelessly. The challenge grew as the object began to disintegrate, breaking into 82 fragments of varying sizes. Only about one-third of the original components survived, including 30 corroded bronze gears.
Reconstructing a meaningful whole from the fragmented pieces was made possible thanks to over a century of interdisciplinary research and remarkable advances in scientific technology. It began with a German philologist who noticed the numbers inscribed on the fragments and speculated that the device could be a kind of calculating tool. Then, a British physicist and historian of science compared historical records and collaborated with Greek radiologists to examine internal images using X-ray scans. Their findings suggested that the device may have originated from the designs of Archimedes, and that its intricate gearwork was intended to predict the positions of celestial bodies. Mechanical engineers from the Science Museum in London and computer scientists from Australia later applied linear tomography to determine the precise number of teeth on key gears.
Eventually, a filmmaker with a mathematics background at University College London teamed up with materials scientists, archaeometallurgies, and horologists. Using advanced digital imaging techniques, they discovered inscriptions on the front and back plates of the device, which described planetary cycles and how to operate the instrument. These inscriptions revealed that the mechanism could not only track the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets, but also predict solar and lunar eclipses. After twenty years of painstaking reconstruction, this team proposed a gear mechanism model that incorporated all planetary cycles—finally revealing a working prototype of what is now known as the Antikythera Mechanism.
This astronomical computing device, built over 2,200 years ago, is hailed as the world’s first analog computer. Its remarkable precision and complexity have left experts in awe. When the landmark research paper was published in a leading academic journal in March 2021, researchers emotionally remarked, “This mechanical device is more valuable than the Mona Lisa.” But who were the inventors, designers, and builders behind this ingenious creation? To trace their identities, one must look back to three great scholars who conducted research at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt: Archimedes, a scientist and mathematician; Euclid, the father of projective geometry; and Hipparchus, the founding figure of astronomical physics.
Established some 2,300 years ago on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Library of Alexandria was the cradle of human knowledge and civilization. Many accomplished scholars resided there for extended periods, devoting themselves to the study of astronomy, geography, and hydrology. They developed objective methods of analysis and verifiable reasoning, recorded their findings in systematically written form on papyrus, and classified and stored them within the library’s vast collections. These documents allowed future scholars to compare and build upon past research—deepening understanding, generating new knowledge, and even inspiring practitioners (what we today call engineers) to transform theory into practical inventions and intricate mechanisms that addressed real-world challenges. Through such efforts, life was made more convenient, and the human experience more enriched.
The Antikythera Mechanism was the product of this very tradition. Archimedes advanced the fields of metallurgy and buoyancy, bridging theory and practice in mechanical design. Euclid’s axiomatic method laid the foundation for deductive reasoning in mathematics, and his work in projective geometry anticipated the principles behind modern GPS navigation. Hipparchus compiled solar and lunar motion tables spanning centuries, predicted eclipses, created the first star catalog listing the positions and brightness of 850 stars, introduced the use of latitude and longitude to map geographic locations, and employed projection techniques to draw star maps of the Greek sky.
Gazing upon the Antikythera Mechanism’s intricate gears—each corresponding to the Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, and more—one can imagine the interplay of celestial bodies, their forward and retrograde movements, all precisely indicated by a device built more than 2,000 years ago. And now, over two millennia later, modern readers are able to reconstruct the scientific knowledge that powered this invention, thanks to the written records left by ancient scholars—and the indispensable role played by repositories of knowledge like the Library of Alexandria, which served as a platform for the storage, circulation, and creation of human wisdom.
From this ancient instrument for tracking the heavens, to humanity’s moon landing in 1969, to the unveiling of the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019—located 55 million light-years away—technological advancement has accelerated at breathtaking speed. Meanwhile, the way we accumulate and transmit knowledge has also undergone a profound transformation. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, reading literacy has become one of the most essential core competencies—not only for mastering existing knowledge, exploring new frontiers, and translating theory into practice, but also for navigating the internet, exploring the digital realm, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
And yet, throughout all this progress, the repository of books—our modern libraries—remains the cornerstone of knowledge exchange and the stronghold of intellectual creativity. Like bedrock, they endure through the ages.
(The author is an Academician of Academia Sinica.)