On 17 May 1902 archaeologist Valerios Stais made the most celebrated find: when diving to search the area of the Antikythera wreck, he noticed that one of the pieces of rock near him had a gear wheel embedded in it. It would soon be identified as the Antikythera mechanism; originally thought to be one of the first forms of a mechanised clock, it is now considered to be the world’s oldest known analog computer.
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. Its complexity and significance were not understood until decades after it's discovery. It is now thought to have been built about 150–100 BC. Consensus among scholars is that the mechanism was made in Greece. All the instructions of the mechanism are written in Greek.
The National Archaeological Museum owns a most remarkable and rich collection of bronze artefacts, which constitutes a distinct permanent collection since 1893. This collection comprises figurines and minor objects, as well as large original bronze statues, such as the Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, the Artemision Jockey, the Antikythera Youth and the Marathon boy. These large metal sculptures are displayed with the Sculpture Collection in order to provide a fuller image of the development of large-scale sculpture.
