Experts: Fragments an Ancient Computer

A fragment of the 2,100-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, believed to be the earliest surviving mechanical computing device, is seen at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. The bronze system of cogs and wheels was found in a Roman wreck off southern Greece in 1900. It is the focus of a two-day conference starting in Athens late Thursday, with the participation of scientists from Greece, Britain, the U.S. and other countries. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) (Thanassis Stavrakis - AP)

The new study of the ancient device, with the aid of Hewlett Packard and the British x-ray equipment maker X-Tek, more than doubled the amount of the inscriptions readable on the mechanism.

"We will not yet be able to answer the question of what the mechanism was for, although now we know what the mechanism did," Edmunds said.

The first comparable devices known in the west were clockwork clocks developed during the Middle Ages.

The Antikythera device was probably made on the island of Rhodes, which had a long tradition in astronomy and applied mechanics.

The sunken ship, thought to have been carrying plunder from Roman-conquered Greece to Rome, is believed to have sailed from Rhodes.

It sank in the first century B.C.

The wreck was found in 1900 by Greek sponge-divers 50 meters (164 feet) deep and just off the small island of Antikythera, on what is still a busy trade route between southern mainland Greece and Crete.

A systematic search of the wreck revealed a group of bronze and badly weathered marble statues, as well as the Antikythera Mechanism, in what remained of its original wooden casing.

All the finds _ including wine jars, pottery, silver coins and plates _ are now at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.