The Antikythera mechanism, discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, is considered the world's oldest known analog computer, dating back to the 2nd century BC.

Recent X-ray imaging and analysis, utilizing statistical modeling techniques like Bayesian methods developed for detecting gravitational waves, revealed that one of the mechanism's rings likely had 354 or 355 regularly spaced holes, corresponding to the days in a Greek lunar calendar, suggesting it followed a lunar calendar instead of the Julian solar calendar.

The precision and detail of the mechanism's design, with an average radial variation of only 0.028 mm in positioning the holes, indicate advanced measurement techniques and sophisticated craftsmanship by ancient Greek artisans, providing insight into the advanced knowledge and craftsmanship of ancient Greek civilization in tracking the heavens nearly two millennia ago.

The Antikythera Mechanism had intricate inscriptions, some as small as a millimeter, with names of months, zodiac signs, and a total of 3400 deciphered signs.

The Antikythera shipwreck is considered one of the richest ancient wrecks in Greece, yielding numerous artifacts, including the Antikythera mechanism.

Recent investigations by Swiss archaeologists from the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (Esag) have uncovered a significant part of the shipwreck, confirming the existence of a second wooden ship around 200 meters away, both dating back to the 1st century BC.

The 2024 expedition utilized advanced techniques like ROVs and specialized scanners, revealing the complexity of the site, including the original components and protective coating of the ships in excellent condition. Initial analysis suggests the ships were likely built using the "Shell First" method, with planks assembled before frames, different from modern shipbuilding practices.

Sources: Newsweek, Futurism, PopSci, Economic Times, La Vanguardia, LiveScience, Olhar Digital, Diario Uno, Yahoo News, Physics World, Der Standard, CNN Indonesia, ScienceAlert, NewsYou, Koninkrijksrelaties, Ancient Origins, SwissInfo, Nau

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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The words "Holy Jerusalem" in ancient Hebrew script were found on a rare silver half-shekel coin from the first year of the Great Revolt against the Romans, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed Tuesday.

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The 2,000-year-old half-shekel coin, made of silver, from the days of the first revolt of the Jews against the Romans, was discovered in the Ein Gedi area of the Judean Desert. The coin, dated 66/67 CE, was discovered during the sixth year of a Judean Desert cave survey operation that the Israel Antiquities Authority is managing in cooperation with the Ministry of Heritage and an archaeology staff officer at the Civil Administration, aimed at reaching the archaeologists' treasures before the antiquities thieves.

Video: Al-Jazeera report denies Jewish connection to Temple Mount / Al-Jazeera

Recently, as part of the survey, examining every cave and crevice, the IAA inspectors reached a section of a cliff in one of the streams of the Ein Gedi area, when they noticed a coin made of silver sticking out of the ground at the entrance to one of the caves. One hypothesis is that the coin fell from a pocket of a rebel who went down to the desert during the rebellion – perhaps on route to nearby Ein Gedi. This could explain how the coin came from Jerusalem to the desert. The words "Holy Jerusalem" is inscribed in ancient Hebrew script on one side of the coin.

Yaniv David Levy, a researcher in the coin branch of the Antiquities Authority said, "You can see an inscription written in unvowelized Hebrew spelling on this coin from the first year of the rebellion. This may be proof of the process of formulating inscriptions when in later years of the rebellion, the inscription 'Holy Jerusalem' is written in plene spelling. Three pomegranates are displayed in the center of the coin, a familiar symbol on the Israeli pound, used by the State of Israel until 1980."

A goblet appears on the other side and above it the Hebrew letter Alef is inscribed, indicating the first year of the outbreak of the rebellion, as well as the inscription "Hatzi Shekel" [half shekel], indicating the value of the coin. The goblet was a symbol typical of the coins used by the Jewish population in the late Second Temple period. These coins were minted in values ​​of "shekel" and "half shekel" during the first rebellion against the Romans, which took place here in the Land of Israel, from 66 to 70 CE. This rebellion ended in the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Interestingly, in accordance with the commandment "Thou shalt not make for thee a graven image" in the Ten Commandments, the Jews engraved symbols taken from the world of plants on their coins, as well as themes inspired by religious objects of worship and sacredness. This, while the pagan population used things from everyday life on the coins, such as animals, and the faces of their emperors.

As part of an act of defiance and the creation of an internal rebellion economy, the Jewish rebels minted their own silver and bronze coins, engraved with Jewish motifs and symbols. It is assumed that the coins were minted in Jerusalem – and possibly even in the temple complex itself. With these coins, the rebels chose to use the ancient Hebrew script that was common hundreds of years earlier – during the time of the First Temple – and not the Greek script, which was used in the days of the Second Temple.

"Coins from the first year of the revolt, such as this coin that was discovered in the Judean Desert, are rare," added Levy. "During the time of the Second Temple, pilgrims used to raise a tax of half a shekel to the Temple. The accepted currency for paying this tax for almost 2,000 years was the Tyrian_shekel. When the revolt broke out, the rebels issued, as mentioned, these replacement coins which bore the inscriptions 'Israel shekel,' 'half shekel,' and a quarter shekel. It seems that the worship of the Temple continued even during the rebellion, and these coins were also used by the rebels for this purpose."

Amir Ganor, director of the Theft Prevention Unit at the IAA, said: "Finding a silver half-shekel coin from the first year in an organized archaeological project is a rare event in Israel, in general, and in the Judean Desert, in particular. The current discovery shows how important it is to survey the entire area of ​​the Judean Desert systematically and professionally. Every successful item discovered in the survey adds more information about the history of our nation and country. If the survey had not been carried out, the coin might have fallen into the hands of antiquities thieves and sold in the antiquities market to the highest bidder. During the six years of this operation, we have documented over 800 caves and discovered thousands of valuable and important finds."

Minister of Heritage Rabbi Amihai Eliyahu, said: "The exciting discovery brings further evidence of the deep and indisputable ties between the Jewish people and Jerusalem and the Land of Israel." The rare coin that was used, according to researchers, in the Second Temple period, goes back about 2,000 years and the inscription 'Holy Jerusalem' is engraved on it. The amazing find is another strong connection to our people's roots in the Land of Israel."

Eli Escusido, director of the IAA added: "The coin is a direct and touching evidence of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans – a turbulent period in the life of our people from 2,000 years ago, during which extremism and discord divided the people and led to destruction. We have returned here after 2,000 years of yearning, and the city of Jerusalem is back to being our capital, but there is nothing new under the sun – the disputes have not ended. Finding this coin reminds us all of our past, and why we must strive for agreement."

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A rare assemblage of 530 'astragali' – animal knuckle bones used for gambling and divination – dating to the Hellenistic period some 2,300 years ago was unearthed in Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park of southern Israel.

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This exceptionally large collection, the results of which were first published recently in the British archaeological journal Levant, was discovered by Dr. Ian Stern several years ago in underground caves beneath the ancient city of Maresha.

Dozens of dice bore Greek inscriptions – some were engraved with the names of gods associated in antiquity with human wishes and desires: Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty; Eros, the god of love; the god Hermes; the goddess Hera; and Nike, the goddess of victory.

On other bones, game instructions and various game roles are engraved, such as "Thief," "Stop," or "You are burned."

"The assemblage shows that in ancient times of distress, as today, people sought help from external factors, in magic and spells, and in the world of the unknown. We have examples of children buried with similar gaming dice. The cubes, which were a popular gaming activity, had a role in accompanying children to the [afterlife]," she aid.

Perry-Gal continued to explain that the "Hellenistic city of Maresha was one of the period's melting pots" in the region.

"Different populations and cultures lived side-by-side here as neighbors, all subordinate to the Hellenistic rule. There lived here Edomites, Phoenicians, Nabateans, and Jews, and the different peoples and cultures influenced each other."

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Jordan on Tuesday sentenced a man to death by hanging for a 2019 stabbing attack at a popular tourist site that wounded eight people, including foreign tourists and their guide.

A state security court found the man guilty. It sentenced another man to life in prison and a third to seven years for allegedly aiding in the attack at the Roman ruins of Jerash, the state-run Petra news agency said.

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The family of the suspect, who was subdued and apprehended immediately after the attack, identified him at the time as Mustafa Abu Tuameh, a 22-year-old resident of a nearby Palestinian refugee camp. They said he was very poor and had recently become more religious but was not affiliated with any armed group.

His lawyer, Mekhled Dwaikat, said he would appeal Tuesday's verdict.

The attack in Jerash, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Amman, cast a shadow on Jordan's vital tourism industry, which over the past year has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The wounded included three Mexican tourists and a Swiss woman. Along with the tour guide, three other Jordanians, including two security officers and a bus driver, were also hurt before the attacker was subdued and arrested.

Amateur video showed a bloody scene next to the Jerash archaeological site, an ancient city whose ruins include a Roman amphitheater and a columned road.

Muslim extremists have targeted tourist sites in Jordan in the past, in part to undermine its Western-allied monarchy. In 2005, triple hotel attacks killed at least 23 people, while the following year a British tourist was killed when a gunman opened fire at Roman ruins in Amman.

More recently, a 2016 attack by the Islamic State group killed 14 people, including a Canadian tourist.

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The images have now been made public by the Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries.

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According to a Defense Ministry statement, "Ofek 16 is an electro-optic surveillance satellite with advanced capabilities. The satellite is equipped with high-quality cameras developed by Elbit Systems, with the best performance stats in the market."

Video: Defense Ministry Spokesperson

Meanwhile, the Israel Space Agency has unveiled a national initiative to manufacture satellite cameras, a joint venture by the Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems.

"The national infrastructure, which was founded with an investment of hundreds of millions of shekels, includes laboratories for the manufacture of lenses and mirrors, as well as a vacuum cell that mimics conditions in space and was used to test the satellite camera before it was launched," the Defense Ministry said.

According to the ministry, after the process of in-orbit testing is complete, the Defense Ministry will hand over responsibility for the satellite's operation to Unit 9900, the IDF Intelligence Directorate's geo-intelligence unit, and Ofek-16 will be declared operational.

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Prior to the vandalism, the site, a small fort which served as a way station for travelers on ancient trade roads, had already suffered from neglect and damage. Hikers tossed away litter and lit campfires in the structure's chambers, and broke the arches that had held up the building's roof.

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The graffiti was the last straw. Archaeologists teamed up with the IAA's educational center in the Negev to organize volunteers to clean up the site. Instructors from BeYachad Academy in Yeroham, as well as other local residents, removed the graffiti, weeded, and collected trash, and in return were treated to a mini-seminar about the site and the finds that have been dug up there.

One of the BeYachad staff said, "It's very moving to help preserve the site. Taking part in cleaning and refurbishing the post was an opportunity to learn about it up close, and feel a connection with it."

The IAA is hoping that the city will adopt the site and hold activities and volunteer maintenance days there on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, the IAA's Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit is trying to track down the vandals.

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Increasingly high temperatures linked to climate change, as well as wilder weather, particularly heavy rains and flooding, are taking a growing toll on the ancient stonework, said Abdelhakim Elbadry, a restoration expert who works at Karnak temple.

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"The changes appear noticeably, in the damage and cracks of the facades of many graves as well as the change of the color of the archeological stones, as a result of high temperature and humidity," Elbadry told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Granite that was once rose-colored has faded to a pale pink or even light gray over the last 15 years, he said.

"In every archeological site here in Luxor, you can witness the changes," he said.

Climate change is making efforts to protect Egypt's famed but fragile archeological sites even harder, preservation experts say.

From the pyramids and Sphinx to the Citadel of Qaitbay and an ancient Roman amphitheater near the Mediterranean Sea, the country's historic sites face growing threats from harsher weather and rising seas.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass – the country's former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs – said virtually all open-air archeological sites in Egypt are in danger from stronger winds and humidity, higher temperatures, and bigger floods.

"I believe that in 100 years all these antiquities will be gone because of climate change," Hawass said, referring to expected serious deterioration of the monuments.

He said offices staffed by specialists should be set up near each of the country's archeological sites to record the changes taking place, try to find immediate solutions and to coordinate restoration of damage.

He has called for a joint effort by Egypt and the European Union to try to mitigate the effects of climate change on Egyptian antiquities.

Monica Hanna, an archeologist with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, said she believes many Egyptian historic sites near the Mediterranean Sea could see significant damage from rising sea levels linked to climate change within about 30 years.

Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, faces some of the biggest risks.

In remarks in Germany last year, Patricia Espinosa, head of the UN climate change secretariat, warned that climate change posed particularly severe threats to low-lying coastal cities such as Alexandria and Osaka in Japan.

Climate impacts "are not going to get better, they are going to get worse," she warned.

But a shifting climate also is just one of the threats to Egypt's antiquities, which also face pressure from everything from worsening air pollution to expanding settlements as the country's population grows, Hanna said.

Air pollution can erode the limestone and sandstone blocks that make up many ancient structures, she said, and the construction of housing areas without proper sewage systems, in areas near historic sites, can cause "tremendous" damage.

Egyptologist Hawas said visiting tourists also remain a threat to the structures they flock to admire.

"The flashes of mobile phones, the breathing, and touching the antiquities – all these have really harmful effects," he said.

Government action

Hussein Abdel Basir, director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, said the government is taking some action to better protect its archeological sites from climate threats.

In Alexandria, the national government has earmarked $14 million to protect the Citadel of Qaitbay from coastal erosion.

"A total of 4,700 concrete blocks have been dropped in the water around the citadel in order to protect it from rising water," Abdel Basir said.

In addition to that effort, which started in late 2018, the government is putting in place projects to protect beaches from higher waves and stop coastal erosion.

Abdel Basir said about 230 foreign-led archeological missions operate in Egypt, and about 10% of those are carrying out work to reverse degradation seen in the country's famed antiquities.

But that is still far too little to adequately deal with the growing climate change threats, he said.

The endangered monuments are "the heritage of the world. It is not only Egypt's civilization that is being threatened, it is the history of humanity," he said.

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Rising sea levels threaten to inundate poorer neighborhoods and archaeological sites, prompting authorities to erect concrete barriers out at sea to break the tide. A severe storm in 2015 flooded large parts of the city, causing at least six deaths and the collapse of some two dozen homes, exposing weaknesses in the local infrastructure.

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Alexandria, the country's second-largest city, is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea and backs up to a lake, making it uniquely susceptible to the rising sea levels caused by global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps.

Back in the late 1940s and 1950s, it was a haven for writers and artists that drew both Egypt's well-heeled and foreign tourists for its beauty and charm. Today, more than 60 kilometers (40 miles) of waterfront make it a prime summer destination for Egyptians, but many of its most famous beaches already show signs of erosion.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that global sea levels could rise by 0.28 to 0.98 meters (1-3 feet) by 2100, with "serious implications for coastal cities, deltas, and low-lying states."

Experts acknowledge that regional variations in sea level rise and its effects are still not well understood. But in Alexandria, a port city home to more than 5 million people and about 40% of Egypt's industrial capacity, there are already signs of change.

Egypt's Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry says that the sea level rose by an average of 1.8 millimeters annually until 1993. Over the following two decades that rose to 2.1 millimeters a year, and since 2012 it has reached as high as 3.2 millimeters per year, enough to threaten building foundations.

The land on which Alexandria is built, along with the surrounding Nile Delta, is sinking at roughly the same rate, due in part to upstream dams that prevent the replenishment of silt and natural gas extraction. That is expected to exacerbate the effects of the rise in sea level, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

A 2018 study predicted that up to 734 square kilometers (more than 283 square miles) of the Nile Delta could be inundated by 2050 and 2,660 square kilometers (more than 1,020 sq. miles) by the end of the century, affecting 5.7 million people.

Residents living in low-lying areas are already coping with the consequences. A 52-year-old resident of the Shatby neighborhood, who goes by Abu Randa, said he has repaired his three-story home twice since the 2015 floods.

"We know it is risky. We know that the entire area will be underwater, but we have no alternative," he said.

In the el-Max neighborhood, hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes after severe flooding in 2015. The Housing Ministry built nine apartment blocks to house them after declaring the area unsafe.

Sayed Khalil, a 67-year-old fisherman from the neighborhood, said that the homes have flooded with seawater every winter in recent years, from both the nearby shore and a canal running through the area.

"It is hard to imagine that el-Max will be here in a few decades," said Khalil. "All these houses might vanish. The area you see now will be an underwater museum."

Authorities installed sea defenses to protect the neighborhood, which is home to an oil refinery, a cement plant, and tanneries, but residents say that it hasn't made much of a difference.

"Every year the waves are much stronger than the previous year," Abdel-Nabi el-Sayad, a 39-year-old fisherman, said. "We did not see any improvement. They just forced people to leave."

The city's antiquities sites – those that survived its tumultuous history – are also under threat.

The Pharos Lighthouse, once among the tallest man-made structures and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was toppled by an earthquake in the 14th century. The famed Alexandria Library burned to the ground when Julius Caesar set fire to an enemy fleet in 48 BCE.

But the citadel of Qaitbay, a medieval fortress built on the ruins of the lighthouse at the end of a narrow peninsula jutting into the sea, still looms over the city's sprawling central harbor, just across from the modern Library of Alexandria, a research center inaugurated in 2002.

Ashour Abdel-Karim, head of the Egyptian General Authority for Shores Protection, said that the citadel is especially vulnerable. He said the increasingly powerful waves and currents had pushed into the foundations, forcing authorities to install a long line of concrete sea barriers visible from the built-up downtown waterfront, known as the Corniche.

The Egyptian government, which has been struggling to rebuild the economy after the unrest following the 2011 Arab Spring, has allocated more than $120 million for the barriers and other protective measures along the shore, Abdel-Karim said.

"Without such barriers, parts of the Corniche and buildings close to the shore would be damaged," at an estimated cost of nearly $25 billion, he said.

Inland sites are also at risk, including the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, which date back to the 2nd century CE with architectural stylings inspired by ancient Egypt. The catacombs and other sites flooded in 2015.

Prophet Daniel Street downtown is considered one of the world's oldest, and today runs past a mosque, a synagogue, and St. Mark's Church, the seat of the Coptic Christian patriarchate.

Mohammed Mahrous, who works for a bookstore on the street, remembers when the shop was closed for a week after the 2015 flood.

"We are aware that this street, which survived for hundreds of years, could be underwater in the coming years, in our lifetime," he said.

"Every year the waves are stronger than in the previous one. The winter is harsher and the summer is more sweltering."

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