<< Our Photo Pages >> National Archaeological Museum Athens - Museum in Greece in Central Greece
Submitted by Antonios on Tuesday, 08 February 2022 Page Views: 21664
MuseumsSite Name: National Archaeological Museum AthensCountry: Greece Region: Central Greece Type: Museum
Nearest Town: Athens Nearest Village: Athens
Latitude: 37.989020N Longitude: 23.732074E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
bat400 visited on 19th May 2011 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 An amazing museum and well worth the price. I do note that due to funding reductions some galleries have been closed, I believe on a rotating basis. On the day of my visit, much of the ceramics collections, the Vase and Minor Objects Collection, were not accessible.
davidmorgan Kuba have visited here
Museum website.
Article and pictures recently sent to us from Antonios about the Antikythera computer:
More than 2000 years the most sophisticated scientific instrument was resting in the bottom of Aegean Sea. A Roman ship with an official loot from Rhodes of more than 100 statues and the mechanism has sunk near Antikythera Island. Found by sponge divers the artifact first was labeled a child's-toy. British historian Derek J.de Solla Price in 1951 cleaned the device and undertook systematic investigation. It took many years for the scientists to demystify it with radiographies-rays, gamma rays and other analysis. It appears to be a clock-like machine consisting of 37 precise hand cut bronze gears, wheels, dials and scales fitted in to a wooden box. The box has decayed. Thirty other gears are missing.The instrument was a mechanical analog computer used to calculate the astronomical positions of the moon, planets and stars on the zodiac cycle. The design of the epicyclical gearing present in the calculator indicates knowledge of heliocentric theory. A model proposed by the great astronomer Aristarchus of Samios (310-230 BC).It is possible the theory of Aristarchus was adopted by his followers as opposed to the geocentric theory of Aristotle and Claudius Ptolemeus.Copernicus in 1543 used the heliocentric model of Aristarchus.Actually the heliocentric theory appears 800 years earlier in the Sacred Orphic texts. Machine of such complex technology would not appear until the 18th century. There are literary quotes about Archimedes having similar mechanisms.
In 2005 scientists from high technology companies, Hewlett Packard (US) and X-Tek Systems (UK) came to Athens with the eight tones “Bladerunner”, a very powerful new X-ray machine. The detailed examination of the faded and worn out inscriptions revealed more information.
Kharalambos Kritzas, archaeologist and former director of Epigraphic Museum Athens, studied the letters that are engraved in the mechanism and it pronounced that was manufactured by 150to 100 BCE.It was the time where in Rhodes lived the father of Astronomy and leading intellectual Hipparchus.He had calculated the diameter of the moon and her oscillating distance from the earth..Moroever he had calculated the variable corner speed of the moon. Which is represented with precision in the Antikythera computer. This practically means if Hipparchus made the mechanism, then he had found the second law of Kepler 1700 years earlier. On 3 Nov 2000 the science journal Nature published a new reconstruction of the mechanism based on high resolution X-ray tomography. This provided new translation .The inscription contains a manual with an astronomical, mechanical and geographic section. The name Ispania (Spain in Greek) appeared in the mechanism, this is the oldest reference to this country under this form as opposed to Iberia. Greeks were familiar with Iberia as they established colonies since the Bronze Age. Based on the inscriptions, which mention the stationary points of the planets, the motions of the planets have been indicated. On the front face were graduations for the solar scale and the zodiac together with pointers that indicated the position of the sun, moon, the lunar phase and the planetary motion. The moon mechanism using an ingenious train of gears, two of them linked with a slightly offset axis and pin in a slot, shows the position and phase of the moon during the month, the velocity of the moon varies according to the theory of Hipparchus and follows Kepler’s second law for the angular velocity, Being faster near the perigee and slower at the apogee.
Photo of the reconstructed Byzantine Astrolabe made by Kriaris Dionysios. Was exhibited at Ancient Technological Museum, Greece.The astrolabe was used for the measurement of the angle between two objects as well as for the measurement of the sun's height and other stars, which determine the season, the duration of the day, the meridian of the place and other. The knowledge was passed on to Arabs. It is a modest descendant of the Antikythera Computer.
Note: The surviving fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism can be viewed here. It is very probable it was a mechanical computer of bronze gears made to make astronomical predictions, by mechanizing astronomical cycles and theories. (As published in Nature in 2021) More in the comments on our page
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