Paul,

If you have not previous found them have a look at Clickspring's series of videos on the Antikythera mechanism and his construction of a reproduction. Technically fascinating, and AWESOME craftmanship.

Start at The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1 – Greeks, Clocks and Rockets. – YouTube

I wonder if a lot of the popularity is due to enormous respect for the skills of its unknown makers when metalworking as sophisticated as in this instrument, was still in its infancy and the tools available must have been very basic and rather crude by our standards.

Simple domestic, trade and military objects made in bronze, often with a lot of engraved ornamenting, were common by then, but the Antikythera Mechanism is in a league of its own.

On the contrary, the Greeks had all sorts of mechanisms. No doubt the Antikythera device was just one example of many geared mechanisms, even if it was the most complex.

Have a look at this link to Hero's Inventions (born 2,000 years ago)

If it really is an orrery it's orders of magnitude more complex.

Plus it seems to me many of the descriptions may not have been realised in practice, and even then many are either single devices or sets of such in series, not multiple simultaneous calculators.

Fine precision geared mechanisms of this character would have opened up enormous possibilities for calculation which would certainly have been of benefit to those trying to calculate with Roman numerals of the time.

Edited By Mick B1 on 12/01/2022 23:04:58