THE ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS OF THE PARAPEGMA OF THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM

摘要

A small part of the parapegma, with six star events and three zodiac statements, is preserved on Fragment C of the Antikythera Mechanism. A new method of astronomical analysis of these events and statements reveals that the parapegma works best for geographic latitudes in the range 33.3°N - 37.0°N. The method was also applied to other parapegmata and in the case of Ptolemy, the results corroborate very well the geographic region that Ptolemy describes. It should be pointed out, however, that (a) the limited number of preserved events and (b) the historical uncertainties of the way the parapegma was actually formed do not allow a strong statement about the geographic association of the Antikythera Mechanism to be made. Rather, the star phases can be taken as suggesting a likely band of latitudes 33.3°N - 37.0°N; and they do make it appear unlikely that the parapegma could have been designed for the northern cities of Epirus that might have been acceptable based on the calendrical data.