[[Artefakt (arkæologi)|Artefaktet]] blev hentet op fra havet i 1901 og [[arkæolog]]en [[Valerios Stais]] identificerede at den indeholdt tandhjul den 17. maj 1902,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/05/17/antikythera-mechanism-discovered-115-years-ago/|title=What is the Antikythera Mechanism? How was this ancient 'computer' discovered?|first=Chiara|last=Palazzo|date=17. maj 2017|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=10. juni 2017}}</ref> blandt de vraggenstande, som blev hentet fra [[Antikythera-vraget]] ud for kysten ved den græske ø [[Antikythera]].<ref>Alexander Jones, A Portable Cosmos, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 10–11.</ref><ref name=price-74>{{cite journal| last=Price| first=Derek de Solla| title=Gears from the Greeks. The Antikythera Mechanism: A Calendar Computer from ca. 80 B. C.| journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series| volume=64| number=7| date=1974| pages=1–70| doi=10.2307/1006146| jstor=1006146}}</ref> Man antager at instrumentet er blevet designet og fremstillet af græske videnskabsfolk, og det er blevet dateret til enten 87 f.v.t.<ref>Price, Derek de Solla (1974). "Gears from the Greeks. The Antikythera Mechanism: A Calendar Computer from ca. 80 BC" Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series. 64 (7): 19</ref> eller mellem 150 og 100 f.v.t.<ref name=freeth-06/> eller til 250 f.v.t.<ref name="Carman Evans">{{cite journal|last1=Carman|first1=Christián C.|last2=Evans|first2=James|title=On the epoch of the Antikythera mechanism and its eclipse predictor|journal=Archive for History of Exact Sciences|date=15. november 2014|volume=68|issue=6|pages=693–774|doi=10.1007/s00407-014-0145-5}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20141124-JM">{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |title=On the Trail of an Ancient Mystery - Solving the Riddles of an Early Astronomical Calculator |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/science/solving-the-riddles-of-an-early-astronomical-calculator.html |date=24. november 2014 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=25. november 2014 }}</ref> eller inden for en generation før skibsvraget, som er blevet dateret til omkring 50-60 f.v.t.<ref>Paul Iversen, "The Calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism and the Corinthian Family of Calendars," ''Hesperia'' 86 (2017): 182–183.</ref><ref>Alexander Jones, A Portable Cosmos, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 93, 157-60, 233-46.</ref>
Historie Kommunikation Arkæologi