The Center of Ancient Astronomy in the Greek island of Crete has finally opened its doors. It is the first in Europe and one of the few across the world.
Visitors are able to admire objects used in the 4th millennium BC. One of them is a replica carved on stone of what is considered as the first analog computer in the history of mankind, found in Paleokastro, Sitia district, in western Crete.
The center, which is an initiative of researcher Minas Tsikritsis, is housed in a kiosk at the port of Sitia and aims to promote the Minoan civilization.
Next to the replica of the Minoan analog computer, visitors can find a contemporary computer that predicts future eclipses and shows the Moon’s trajectory.
The Center of Ancient Astronomy hosts copies of the frying pans from the Minoan cemetery of Agia Fotia in Sitia, dating to 2,700 BC, which were used as calendars to predict the position of the Sun and other planets. It also includes samples of the first Cretan scriptures (Cretan hieroglyphs, Phaistos Disk, Linear A and Linear B).
According to Tsikritsis, the Center was inaugurated at the most remote part of southern Greece and it should be a reference point, a unique tourist destination which will inform visitors on the origins of the technology that appeared in the middle of the 4th millennium, in the first Greek civilization.
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