Cyprus-Forum.com

[GreekIslandGirl]

World's Second Earliest Computer...

Good. That too.

Although mentioned by Herodotus as in use in Greece from much earlier, "the earliest archaeological evidence for the use of the Greek abacus dates to the 5th century BC. The Greek abacus was a table of wood or marble, pre-set with small counters in wood or metal for mathematical calculations. This Greek abacus saw use in Achaemenid Persia, the Etruscan civilization, Ancient Rome and, until the French Revolution, the Western Christian world.
A tablet found on the Greek island Salamis in 1846 AD dates back to 300 BC, making it the oldest counting board discovered so far." wiki

World's Earliest Computer... ... ...

As usual, don't let facts get in the way of your prejudices, or ex-pat anti-Cypriots or mad-as-a-hatter tsukouis.

Methinks you are beat!

[GreekIslandGirl]

I hate to burst Gig's bubble. I like her, she defends Cyprus with a passion, though she should embrace her Turkish side a bit too, not to mention her African heritage.

This from http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/

"The oldest fossils of modern man are nearly 150,000 years old. Probably on a rainy day, a human walked in wet sand near what is now known as Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains between South Africa and Swaziland. In the 1970's during the excavations of Border Cave, a small piece of the fibula of a baboon, the Lebombo bone, was found marked with 29 clearly defined notches, and, at 37,000 years old, it ranks with the oldest mathematical objects known. The bone is dated approximately 35,000 BC and resembles the calendar sticks still in use by Bushmen clans in Nimibia."

I know I'm going to get into trouble for this one. Poor Cypriots.

You're a bit late on. Don't wet yourself with excitement, old man.

We even got the Colonialist Brit on board ...

I agree with you: this is of interest. Cyprus is not as far from the continental landmass as Crete so there is some prospect that some Humans from that time reached Cyprus.

Patronizing weed-head - you really think you are ahead of Cypriots?

[supporttheunderdog]

I hate to burst Gig's bubble. I like her, she defends Cyprus with a passion, though she should embrace her Turkish side a bit too, not to mention her African heritage.

This from http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/

"The oldest fossils of modern man are nearly 150,000 years old. Probably on a rainy day, a human walked in wet sand near what is now known as Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains between South Africa and Swaziland. In the 1970's during the excavations of Border Cave, a small piece of the fibula of a baboon, the Lebombo bone, was found marked with 29 clearly defined notches, and, at 37,000 years old, it ranks with the oldest mathematical objects known. The bone is dated approximately 35,000 BC and resembles the calendar sticks still in use by Bushmen clans in Nimibia."

I know I'm going to get into trouble for this one. Poor Cypriots.

You're a bit late on. Don't wet yourself with excitement, old man.

We even got the Colonialist Brit on board ...

I agree with you: this is of interest. Cyprus is not as far from the continental landmass as Crete so there is some prospect that some Humans from that time reached Cyprus.

Patronizing weed-head - you really think you are ahead of Cypriots?

how much more trollish can you get?

[GreekIslandGirl]

Oh look, stud is so excited to be mentioned, he got his quotes all wrong.

Edit: - aahh, he has now corrected it.

[Oceanside50]

....at 28:56 Bitsakis discovers something that had not been seen before an inscription of Greek letters describing the mechanism, words like gears, and how many were present ...235...

Why would Archimedes inscribe things like that in his creation? Was he patenting his creation in some early way as being Hellenic or his? or was he giving a blueprint to reproducing it? I know when you take a computer apart all the pieces have numbers and a logo of the part. Is there a connection of thinking?

[supporttheunderdog]

There is a very suseful Article in Wikepedia from which I understand the machine may be based on something Archimedes worked on (and I understand he wrote a now lost work on such mechanisms) but it is thought be more recent than Archimedes by a hundred years or so, possibly constructed in Rhodes. The "doors" to the mechanism have what is though to be an instruction manual . 235 is the number of months is particular cycle indicated by the machine, and both that and the word gears would probbaly apepar quite naturally in any users ' manual.

This is all in all a remarkable perice of engineering.

[bill cobbett]

There is a very suseful Article in Wikepedia from which I understand the machine may be based on something Archimedes worked on (and I understand he wrote a now lost work on such mechanisms) but it is thought be more recent than Archimedes by a hundred years or so, possibly constructed in Rhodes. The "doors" to the mechanism have what is though to be an instruction manual . 235 is the number of months is particular cycle indicated by the machine, and both that and the word gears would probbaly apepar quite naturally in any users ' manual.

This is all in all a remarkable perice of engineering.

yes, yes, yes ... doubtlessly a nice piece of engineering and craftsmanship but after all the posts above, there's been no credit to the scientific research that underlies the machine and...

... where there is no due credit for these huge underlying and previous contributions in the field we get into very ugly matters of Plagiarism...!!!

... Previous work which are centuries of meticulous astronomical observations and logical deductions from there by the Brilliant Babylonians who gave us the massive legacy of the time system we still use and also including a description of what's called the Saros Cycle or Period, which whoever built the machine built in to it, ... an absolutely brilliant Babylonian contribution that we also still use to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

[supporttheunderdog]

Indeed Bill - at least one learned academic has suggested the Mechanism may reflect Babylonian principles

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/full/468496a.html

[bill cobbett]

Indeed Bill - at least one learned academic has suggested the Mechanism may reflect Babylonian principles

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/full/468496a.html

(atishooo) ...Thx for that STUD, will read later.

[supporttheunderdog]

Indeed Bill - at least one learned academic has suggested the Mechanism may reflect Babylonian principles

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101124/full/468496a.html

(atishooo) ...Thx for that STUD, will read later.

bless you!