The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient Greek computer, more than 1000 years ahead of its time could accurately predict the motions of planets and stars even when they would appear to move backward across the sky and baffled researchers.
The Antikythera Mechanism was discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece early in the 20th century. Archaeologists immediately suspected that it was some kind of astronomical clock but figured it was probably renaissance in origin due to its complexity.
It was not until the 2nd half of the 20th century, that researchers realized it dated back to ancient Greece probably around 100 BC - 200 BC and that it accurately traced the movements of the sun and moon predicting when the eclipses would occur.
No other machine of such complexity dating back that far has ever been found the technology having been lost, until the late medieval period.
The Antikythera Mechanism also tracked the movements of Venus and Saturn including that when viewed from the Earth looked like they were traveling backwards across the sky.
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