Which device, found in a shipwreck, is often called the world’s first known analog computer?

The Antikythera mechanism is often called the world’s first known analog computer.

This hand-powered Greek device was recovered in 1901 from a Roman-era shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. Its surviving fragments contain bronze gears and inscriptions, and researchers date the mechanism to approximately the second or early first century BCE.

The device modelled astronomical cycles, including the positions of the Sun and Moon and the phases of the Moon. Its gear trains also represented the Metonic cycle and helped predict the timing of eclipses. A subsidiary dial is associated with the four-year cycle of panhellenic games, including the ancient Olympic Games.

The mechanism is not a modern computer: it had no electricity, software or programmable memory. Instead, a user turned a hand crank to drive carefully arranged gears. X-ray computed tomography revealed internal features that were invisible in the damaged fragments. Its sophistication shows that ancient Greek engineers possessed advanced knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and precision mechanics.