The Antikythera Mechanism

[Benni]

I have seen an interesting documentary last sunday about a fascinating piece of historic engineering,
a 2000 year old analogue astronomic computer called "The Antikythera Mechanism".
The film was on german/french culture TV "ARTE" but was directed by an englishman,
so you might see it sometimes in a similar channel.
More info about the machine on wiki, youtube and here, watch company Hublot tries a model recreation :
http://www.gizmag.com/hublot-antikythera-mechanism...

link to the film (sorry french or german only) here :
http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/die_wundermaschine...

It totally amazed me that humans were capable of doing such brainwork and handcraft 2000 years ago,
and most of both were only "discovered" again hundreds of years later on.

Is this piece of (Archimedic?) genius generally known in PH science circles ?

[Benni]

Simpo Two said:

Or was on its way to be sold for a vast sum, or had been stolen...?

As I remember from the film, the mechanism was found in a shipwreck that was full of other precious objects,
leading to the conclusion it was part of a bounty after one nation had defeated another one,
the winning nation´s troops looted and were planning to get it home by -sunken- ship.
I think the mechanism was unique, nothing even remotely similar has ever been found.