A shipwreck was discovered by sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera around 120 years ago, and the artifacts they unearthed have fundamentally altered our perspective on the course of human history. There were marble statues, gorgeous vases, sparkling jewels, old coins, and what appeared to be a lump of rusted metal, all of which were included in the treasure trove.

However, no one was quite sure what to do with the corroded metal. When it was found, it appeared to be nothing more than a rusted mass about the size of a big dictionary. There was no indication that it contained any interesting information whatsoever.

But in 1902, when it was found out that there were gear wheels inside of it, everyone immediately got quite enthused about it. The fact that anything from ancient Greece should not have gear wheels is the first item that has surprised researchers. These were precision gears, with each tooth measuring around one millimeter in length. And this was just really, totally, totally shocking.

Since then, the Antikythera mechanism has continued to pique the interest of several academic disciplines, including archaeology, mathematics, and science. It is a specialized calculator that employs bronze gear wheels in order to determine the cycles of the cosmos.