I think I have blogged about The Antikythera Mechanism before. It is a device found on the wreck of a Roman ship that appears to make astronomical predictions. The writing on it is Greek so it is presumed to be of Greek manufacture. Initially there has been some debate as to what it could do, but a team of astronomers has now confirmed that the device could be used to predict both lunar and solar eclipses. It also seems likely that it could track the movements of Venus and Mercury, and perhaps other planets as well. Not bad for 100 BC or so. The BBC has more details, including news of a forthcoming Radio 4 program that will doubtless be available over the Internet.

Update: Here’s Nature’s article on the device.