Antikythera Mechanism - most interesting

Early Astronomical ‘Computer’ Found to Be Technically Complex - New York Times:

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By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: November 30, 2006

A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.

Decoding the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculator Known as the Antikythera Mechanism (Nature)

But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.

The instrument, the Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers deciphered inscriptions and reconstructed the gear functions, revealing “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period,” it said."