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Always Further - Hephaistus or the end of the Antikythira Mechanism mysteries

In 2005, the research group HPDST of the Athens Research Institute updated researches about the Antikythira Mechanism, which is displayed today at the National Archeological Museum of Athens. This bronze remains from the end of the II century b. JC is in fact an astronomical clock which is characterized by an ingenious mechanism. It was recovered off the Antikythira islet in 1901.

The main goal of the European researches program (Hephaistus) was to make easier the accessibility of Research to a large and young audience, by the creation of a strong network and a European spreading. The Antikythira exhibition has not a profitable procedure. However, a European grant of 100 000e and the Swiss sponsorship of the clock-making company Hublot supported the project. Its final budget reaches more than 400 000 e.

It is a travelling exhibition that will move on eight European cities: Athens, Paris, Liege, Poellau, Barcelona, Pavia, and Basel. More than hundred thousands of visitors are expected.

The exhibition brings out the complex engineering, and the fascinating atemporality of the Mechanism. Besides, it combines together the question of the Antique Greek astronomy, engineering and civilization, and fits the scientific knowledge to a large audience. The exhibition can take place in Museums, Institutes or Libraries and is often completed by seminars and ludic classes for young people and children.

The Antikythira project is supported by a strong European network of dons, curators, producers and film-directors who are relieving the Greek team abroad. It realizes the symbiosis between researchers who work for the excavation and restoration of historical heritage, and those who work for its memory. The small Greek team required versatile competences in research, management, interpreting, characteristic of a project with a low budget, but a great aspiration.  

To go further

A contribution of ESC Dijon/Diane Pradal