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In mapping eclipses, world's first computer maybe also told fortunes

A 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator used by ancient Greeks to chart the movement of the sun, moon and planets may also have had another purpose - fortune telling, say researchers. Heralded as the world’s first computer, the Antikythera Mechanism is a system of intricate bronze gears dating to around 60 BC, used by ancient Greeks to track solar and lunar eclipses. It was retrieved from a shipwreck discovered off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. While researchers had previously focused on its internal mechanisms, a decades-long study is now attempting to decode minute inscriptions on the remaining fragments of its outer surfaces.”

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