Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., and his colleague Basil Shaw are captured by the Nazis in 1944 while searching for the Spear of Longinus. The Nazis transport Shaw away and plan to execute Jones, but he escapes. The two discover the Antikythera mechanism, a device by Archimedes that can detect space-time transitions. In 1969, Jones is living separately from his wife and gives his last lecture. His goddaughter, Helena Shaw, shows up and wants to learn more about the Antikythera artifact. They retrieve a piece of the artifact but are attacked by Dr. Jürgen Voller and his henchmen. Helena escapes with the piece, and Jones travels to Tangier to find her. After a wild chase, Voller gains possession of the artifact. Jones and Helena travel to Greece, where they get help from a deep-sea diver and find another piece of the mechanism. Voller kills the diver and forces Jones and Helena to translate an ancient wax tablet. Voller plans to travel back to 1939 with the reassembled Antikythera to kill Hitler and lead the Nazis to victory. However, the portal takes them to the Siege of Syracuse (214–212 BC) instead. Jones and Helena meet Archimedes and thwart Voller's plan. Helena brings the wounded Jones back to 1969, where he reconciles with Marion and reminisces about their shared experiences.

The Nazi Gold Train

Starting on March 19, 1944, Hungarian Jews were expropriated by decree of the Hungarian state, and from May 15, they were deported to Auschwitz by the special task force led by Adolf Eichmann. 437,000 out of approximately 800,000 Jews were deported by July 9, 1944, and almost all of them were murdered. The Jews remaining in Budapest were also expropriated, but from October 1944, only a portion were deported. As the Red Army approached in 1944, the Nazi-loyal Arrow Cross regime decided to transport the stolen valuables to the German Reich. Allegedly, in March 1945, a freight train with 46 wagons, 24 of which were filled with looted Jewish property, started at the Austrian-Hungarian border. The train was loaded with crates full of gold, silver, jewels, jewelry, coins, cash, tableware, paintings, carpets, porcelain, furs, sacred objects, watches, stamp collections, and more. In Hopfgarten in Tyrol, part of the crates were diverted by a member of the Arrow Cross regime. The "Gold Train" continued and was initially hidden in the Tauern Tunnel in Bad Gastein. On May 11, the remaining train reached the American occupation zone at Böckstein. The train conductor, László Avar, eventually handed over the wagons to the U.S. Army in Werfen on May 16. The contents of the train were initially stored in a barracks in Salzburg, and the value was estimated by U.S. authorities at around 150 million dollars. Members of the U.S. Army are said to have helped themselves to these Hungarian valuables. In Salzburg, American officers furnished their offices and homes with items from the "Gold Train." At the end of 1945, Gideon Rafael from the Jewish Agency wanted to inspect the warehouse but was initially denied access. When the agency visited the warehouse in 1946, only 16 of the 24 wagons remained. Eventually, some of the items were sold at auctions under the direction of the UN Refugee Commission in New York. For decades, there were negotiations between the U.S. government and the Hungarian government regarding restitution. In January 1978, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance returned the Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen to Budapest during one of these negotiations. In 1998, Bill Clinton established the "Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States" to clarify the whereabouts of the "Gold Train" treasures, among other things. However, their report provided little enlightenment over four pages. In the meantime, 33 Hungarian Holocaust survivors had filed a lawsuit. In 2005, they reached a settlement: the U.S. government paid 25.5 million dollars for social assistance projects benefiting Hungarian Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

The Nazis and Occultism

Many high-ranking Nazis, such as Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, and Richard Walter Darré, had a pronounced interest in occultism. Hitler himself believed he was a being chosen by "Providence." He claimed that during World War I, he followed a voice that urged him to leave his position in an overcrowded trench. Immediately afterward, the trench was hit by a shell, killing all of Hitler's comrades. From then on, he believed he was destined for a special task in this world. He was obsessed with the idea that a supernatural power protected him. Another episode reinforced this belief. During World War I, he escaped a fatal shot from a British soldier. Henry Tandey had already aimed his rifle at Corporal Hitler but lowered it at the last moment out of compassion and empathy, sparing the young man on the opposing side. Tandey's kindness would later plunge the world into terrible suffering. Strangely enough, Tandey was one of the most decorated soldiers in the British Army. He received the Victoria Cross for bravery during the Battle of Marcoing, the very battle in which he spared the future Führer. Hitler saw Tandey lower his rifle and decided that the gods of war had descended to earth to save him. In memory of this sacred moment, Hitler requested a picture of Tandey in 1937, which he later hung in his summer residence in Berchtesgaden. Some people believe that Hitler was possessed by demons, but there is no evidence to support this. Hermann Rauschning, a minor Nazi politician and a rather unreliable source of information, wrote a book in which he claimed Hitler was possessed. Pope Pius XII conducted exorcisms on Hitler three times—from a distance. Pope Benedict XVI also considered it possible that Hitler was possessed by demons. Hitler himself naturally did not believe this. Rather, he thought he was under the protection of the gods and playing a spiritual role in the world. However, the Nazis' belief in mysticism and divine intervention in their favor goes much deeper than Hitler's obsession with his role as a god-like figure. The German public largely believed in this myth. For many Nazis, Hitler was a kind of second Jesus, idealized as a savior sent by God. Heinrich Himmler was fascinated by Germanic neopaganism. Neopaganism is a modern form of paganism that involves animal sacrifices. The deities of Germanic neopaganism included Anglo-Saxon and Norse gods. Followers of this religion revered their ancestors and considered the gods to be their forefathers. Germanic neopaganism also included rituals to summon dwarves and elves. Himmler promoted esoteric Hitlerism. He believed he was a reincarnation of Henry I, also known as Henry the Fowler, one of the great Roman-German kings of the Middle Ages. Henry was the Duke of Saxony from 912 and the King of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. Himmler decorated his private rooms at Wewelsburg in honor of this king and organized many SS rituals as the reincarnation of Henry I. This clearly shows that many high-ranking Nazis had a strong interest in various fields of occultism. The SS employed many occultists to assist them in warfare. Ludwig Straniak, Dr. Wilhelm Gutberlet, and Wilhelm Wulff advised Nazis such as Walter Schellenberg and Himmler. The astrologer Wilhelm Wulff was tasked with finding Mussolini, who was hiding 50 miles south of Rome. Using astrology and dowsing, Wulff searched for an answer. With the help of his psychic abilities, Wulff successfully located Mussolini on the island of Ponza, where Allied troops held him captive. The architect Ludwig Straniak was ordered to find a battleship on a secret Nazi mission at sea. Straniak used his pendulum over a map and located the ship near the Norwegian coast.

The Holy Lance

The Holy Lance (also known as the Lance of Longinus, Maurice's Lance, or Spear of Destiny) is the oldest piece of the imperial regalia of the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. It allegedly contains a piece of a nail from the Cross of Christ (Holy Nail). According to legend, the lance belonged to Maurice, the leader of the Theban Legion, or to the Roman centurion Longinus, who used it to verify the death of Jesus, making it soaked with His holy blood. At times, it was the most important piece of the insignia, later replaced by the Imperial Crown. The lance tip was stored in a cavity inside the crossbeam of the Imperial Cross. A ruler possessing this lance was considered invincible. It was a visible sign that his power came from God and that he was the representative of Christ. Claims were made for at least three other lances or their tips to be the "true" Holy Lance from the time of Christ. During the time of Emperor Otto III, two copies of the lance belonging to the imperial regalia were made and given to friendly rulers (the princes of Poland and Hungary). The lance was brought to Vienna from Nuremberg during the Napoleonic Wars to protect it from Napoleon Bonaparte. Hitler had the lance brought back to Nuremberg shortly before World War II. It was found by Allied soldiers in a tunnel in 1945 and returned to Vienna. It is now displayed in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna under inventory number XIII, 19.

The Lance in the "Third Reich"

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf regarding the separation of Austrian and Prussian-German history through the German War of 1866: "The imperial insignia kept in Vienna, once symbols of imperial glory, seem to work as a wonderful magic, as a pledge of eternal unity." After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, the imperial regalia were transferred from Vienna back to Nuremberg. It is certain that Hitler wanted to do a favor for the local politicians of the city, who were closely linked to the NSDAP through the party rallies held on the Reichsparteitagsgelände. Only towards the end of the 20th century did theories emerge that Hitler was primarily interested in the Holy Lance, which was said to grant him invincibility and which he wanted to use as a wonder weapon. This theory apparently stems from the book The Spear of Destiny (1973) by Trevor Ravenscroft (noting that a lance is not a spear). Against these theses, it is also noted that the lance, along with the other insignia of the Holy Roman Empire, was still in Nuremberg at the end of the war, where it was found by American soldiers. In 1946, the imperial regalia were returned to the Imperial Treasury in Vienna by the United States as spoils of the "Third Reich." The Holy Lance is still on display there. The rumor that the lance found its way to the United States and that only a copy is exhibited in the treasury proved to be unfounded. X-ray images and other non-destructive material tests by the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Archaeology at the University of Vienna in recent years have shown that it is the often-described 1200-year-old lance. Regardless of all rumors, it should be noted that medieval studies in the "Third Reich" conducted an intense discussion about the lance as a symbol of rule of the Ottonians, particularly in the hands of Henry I and Otto I. The first two Ottonians had been commonly considered precursors of eastward-directed imperialism since the 19th century and received special appreciation from 1933 onwards. Recognized historians close to the SS participated in the discussion. Albert Brackmann repeatedly referred to the lance as a relic of St. Maurice in the hands of Otto, for whom the Magdeburg-revered St. Maurice was considered the "patron saint of the German East." Otto Höfler, who worked with the "Ahnenerbe" and taught at the universities of Munich and Kiel, falsely identified the lance as the "holy spear of Wotan" in a lecture on the "Germanic continuity problem" at the 1937 historian's congress in Erfurt, claiming it was only Roman-Christian influenced. In the early 1940s, in addition to Brackmann, medievalist Hans-Walter Klewitz, Josef Otto Plassmann, a great admirer of Henry I in Heinrich Himmler's personal staff, and Alfred Thoss, Nazi writer and member of the Waffen-SS, participated in the discussion in a new edition (1943) of his 1936 monograph on Henry.

The NASA and the Apollo Program

The Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957 caught the attention of the United States, whose own space program was still in its infancy. The U.S. Congress saw the Soviet success as a national security threat, fearing that the Soviet Union might use rockets to deploy nuclear weapons against U.S. territory. Congress demanded immediate and decisive measures to restore the United States' reputation as a technological leader. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisors advocated for a calm and deliberate response. After months of deliberation, it was decided that a new agency should be created to oversee all non-military space activities. On April 2, 1958, a proposal for the formation of this agency was presented to Congress. Several hearings were held before the bill was approved. On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which provided for the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The agency was explicitly tasked with working with the greatest possible scientific openness (“provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof”). On August 8, Thomas Keith Glennan, an advocate of manned spaceflight, was appointed as the head of the new agency, instead of the expected Hugh Latimer Dryden, the director of NACA. Glennan appointed Dryden as his deputy. The new agency began operations on October 1, 1958, consisting of four laboratories and around 8,000 employees from the 43-year-old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and teams from the Army that joined NASA. NASA's first projects focused on manned spaceflight, leading to the space race. The Mercury Program, initiated in 1958, was the first step: it investigated whether and under what conditions a human could survive in space. However, the Soviet Union once again outpaced the United States: on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed his spectacular first spaceflight with Vostok 1, orbiting the Earth once in 108 minutes. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, reaching space with Mercury 3 in a 15-minute suborbital flight. The first American to orbit the Earth was John Glenn in Mercury 6 with a five-hour flight on February 20, 1962. Having gained basic experience in manned spaceflight with the Mercury flights, NASA launched the Gemini Program. This project aimed to conduct experiments and address issues related to a Moon landing mission. The first manned flight of a Gemini rocket was carried out by Virgil Grissom and John Young on March 23, 1965. Nine more missions followed, proving the feasibility of longer space stays and the rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft. These flights also collected medical data on the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

On May 25, 1961, a month and a half after Gagarin's flight, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave a famous speech before Congress, tasking his nation with landing humans on the Moon and bringing them safely back to Earth before the end of the decade. With the following words, the Apollo Program was launched:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

With the collaboration of German-born engineer Wernher von Braun, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the largest rocket to date was built for the manned Moon flight. All Saturn V launches were successful, which is remarkable given their great power and complexity. The MIT Instrumentation Laboratory developed a special inertial navigation system for the Apollo spacecraft, the Primary Guidance, Navigation, and Control System (PGNCS, pronounced "pings"). The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) contained within was the first device to use integrated circuits (ICs). Project FIRE aimed to develop and test technologies for the necessary heat shield of the Apollo command capsule. In preparation for the Moon landing, the Gemini Program ran concurrently with the Apollo Program, gathering experience with rendezvous maneuvers, navigation, and extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in space. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo Program suffered a severe setback: during ground tests, a fire broke out in Apollo Command Module CM 012, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. The rocket was not fueled during these tests, but the command capsule was filled with pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure. Within less than a minute, a small electrical spark turned into a fire that killed the men. Extensive modifications to the command capsule followed. The test was retroactively designated Apollo 1. Nevertheless, Kennedy's challenge to the U.S. nation—to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s—was achieved with the successful Moon landing of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. Although additional launches were initially planned, the program was concluded after the sixth successful Moon landing (Apollo 17).

The Apollo 11 space mission

Apollo 11 was the first manned space mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth manned flight of NASA's Apollo program. The mission was successful and achieved the national goal set by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. The Apollo Guidance Computer, the first embedded computer system, was also used in this mission. It was developed at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (later renamed The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory after its founder and director), and the software development department was led by computer scientist Margaret Hamilton at the time. The three astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched on July 16, 1969, with a Saturn V rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and reached lunar orbit on July 19. While Collins remained in the command module of the spacecraft Columbia, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon the next day with the lunar module Eagle. A few hours later, Armstrong became the first human to step onto the Moon, followed shortly by Aldrin. After a nearly 22-hour stay, the lunar module launched from the Moon's surface and returned to the command ship (lunar orbit rendezvous). Upon returning to Earth, Columbia splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, about 25 km from the recovery ship USS Hornet. Apollo 11 also brought back the first rock samples from another celestial body to Earth. Around 600 million people worldwide watched the television broadcast of the Moon landing in 1969.

The Antikythera shipwreck

Around 70 BC, a large cargo ship sank off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Crete and the Peloponnese. It was loaded with dozens of statues made of marble and bronze, as well as ceramics, furniture, and containers made of silver and glass. As early as 1900, Greek sponge divers recovered the first sculptures. In 1976, Jacques-Yves Cousteau continued the investigation of the site with his legendary research vessel Calypso. Since 2014, new excavations have been taking place off the coast of Antikythera using the most modern technical means. Where did the ill-fated ship come from? What was the destination of its journey? How did the crew and passengers live on board? Why was this 200-300 ton cargo transported? The adventurous excavations of the wreck provide answers to these exciting questions and offer a snapshot of one of the most interesting eras in European history. It was a time of upheaval when the Romans had to deal with the consequences of their military and political successes. In just a few decades, they had expanded their control over the entire Mediterranean and had become the only world power. As a result, they came into contact with other cultures more frequently: tens of thousands of people from around the world now lived voluntarily or as slaves in Rome. Roman politicians began to fear that foreign influences might threaten Roman identity. In particular, the enthusiasm for outstanding Greek art and culture caused discontent, as this was hardly compatible with Roman values such as diligence and frugality. At the same time, however, the Roman upper class was so enchanted by Greek cultural products that they had entire libraries, thousands of sculptures, and everyday objects—essentially an entire culture—shipped to Rome. The ship from Antikythera, which was sailing with its magnificent cargo towards Italy, attests to this difficult balancing act. Just as we are overwhelmed by the rapid development of our world today, the Romans were then both enthusiastic and fearful of the transformation of their society. The cargo of the Antikythera ship included, among other things, bronze sculptures that were already antiques when transported, but also marble works that were made in Greece directly for the Roman market. The demand for Greek artworks in Italy was so great that a veritable mass production of such goods became necessary. The cargo also included an astronomical machine, the so-called Antikythera Mechanism, which provides insight into the astounding scientific and technological knowledge of the Greeks.

The Polybius

The Polybius square, also known as the Polybius checkerboard, is a device invented by the ancient Greeks Cleoxenus and Democleitus and made famous by the historian and scholar Polybius. The device is used to fractionate plaintext characters so they can be represented by a smaller set of symbols, which is useful for telegraphy, steganography, and cryptography. The device was originally used for fire signaling, allowing the encrypted transmission of any message, not just a limited number of predefined options as was previously the case. The device divided the alphabet into five tables with five letters each (except for the last one with only four). There are no surviving tables from antiquity. Letters are represented by two numbers from one to five, allowing the representation of 25 characters with only 5 numeric symbols.

The Grafikos

In order to find the tomb of Archimedes, the famous professor must solve several puzzles, including the deciphering of the Grafikos, which was found in the Polybius after it was melted. But did the Grafikos really exist like already existing artifacts? The answer is clearly no. Like his predecessor, Mangold was also inspired by various real existing objects. The most likely artifacts that could have inspired the famous director are the Phaistos Disc and the Nebra Sky Disc.

The Disc of Phaistos (Greek: Δίσκος της Φαιστού, also Disc of Phaestus or Disc of Festos), a disc made of fired clay found in Phaistos, Crete, is one of the most significant artifacts from the Bronze Age. It is decorated with abstract, human, animal, and object motifs (tools and plant parts) arranged in circular and spiral patterns, which were impressed with individual stamps. The Disc represents the first known "printing with movable type" of humanity, in the sense that it was the first time a complete text body was produced with reusable characters. The Disc of Phaistos is unique, as no other artifact of its kind has been discovered to date. Almost all questions related to the Disc, such as its purpose, cultural and geographical origin, reading direction, and front side, are disputed. Its authenticity and the assumption that the signs are writing have even been doubted. This unique object is now housed in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

The clay disc of Phaistos is flat and irregularly round in shape. Its diameter varies between 15.8 and 16.5 centimeters. The surfaces of both sides, designated as A and B, are smooth but not even and flat. The thickness of the disc ranges from 1.6 to 2.1 centimeters, with side A thickening at the edge and side B in the center. The disc is made of high-quality fine-grained clay, ranging in color from light golden yellow to dark brown, which was carefully fired after stamping. The material is reminiscent of Cretan-Minoan eggshell ware. Both sides of the disc are stamped with outer circular and inner spiral patterns, featuring abstract symbols, human and animal signets, as well as tools and plant motifs. In total, it is inscribed with 241 stamp impressions, grouped into 61 sets by separator lines (called field dividers). Side A contains 122 stamp impressions and 31 groups. A gap on side A indicates a previously existing sign, so the total number of stamp impressions when the disc was made was 123. Side B has 119 impressions grouped into 30 sets. The longest groups have seven stamp impressions, the shortest two. Side B only has group sizes of two to five signs, while side A has groups of two to seven signs. The numbering of the groups varies; for example, Arthur Evans designated the group with the rosette in the center as A 1, while Louis Godart labeled it as A-XXXI. The disc contains a total of 45 distinct stamp motifs, identified as abstract symbols, humans, animals, and objects (tools, weapons, plant parts). Additionally, there are 17 so-called thorns, line markings under the first sign of a section, counted from the center of the disc. The fascination with the Phaistos disc puzzle has led to numerous efforts to decipher its secret. However, a script cannot be deciphered by trial and error alone. For instance, assuming at least sixty different syllabic values, as in Linear B, there would be over 10^69 different possible assignments of syllabic values to the 45 disc signs. Most attempts to decipher the disc assume it is a syllabic script. This is justified by the fact that alphabetic scripts have between 20 and 40 different signs, while the limited text of the disc has 45, and logographic scripts have over 100, as they represent entire words or their designations. Frequent repetitions of certain signs argue against a logographic script on the disc. Successful deciphering attempts in the past have always managed to find a clear assignment of syllabic values to the individual signs, for example with the help of a bilingual text. The interpretations proposed for the disc so far either do not discuss the solution steps used or rely on methods that ultimately involve trial and error with syllables. None of these interpretations have gained scientific recognition.

The Nebra Sky Disc is a circular bronze plate with gold appliqués, considered the oldest known concrete depiction of the sky. Its age is estimated to be between 3,700 and 4,100 years. The artifact from the Unetice culture of the early Bronze Age in Central Europe depicts astronomical phenomena and religious symbols. Gold inlays added a long time after its creation and its deliberate burial around 3,600 years ago suggest its extended, possibly religious, use. Since June 2013, the Nebra Sky Disc has been part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in Germany. It was discovered on July 4, 1999, by treasure hunters on the Mittelberg in the former municipality of Ziegelroda near the town of Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt. Since 2002, it has been part of the collection of the State Museum of Prehistory in Saxony-Anhalt in Halle. The site where the Sky Disc lay in the ground for 3,600 years is covered by the "Sky Eye," a disc made of polished stainless steel. The nearly circular, forged bronze plate has a diameter of about 32 centimeters and weighs approximately 2,050 grams. Its thickness decreases from the center to the edge, from 4.5 millimeters in the middle to 1.7 millimeters at the rim. Scientific investigations have determined the origin of the metal in the bronze disc: the ratio of radiogenic lead isotopes in the copper matches the data from an early Bronze Age ore deposit at Mitterberg in the municipality of Mühlbach am Hochkönig in the Eastern Alps in Austria. Similarly, the origin of the tin was identified; its properties match tin mines from Cornwall. Besides a low tin content of only 2.6 percent, the Nebra Sky Disc also has a high arsenic content of 0.2 percent, typical for the Bronze Age. The Sky Disc was not cast but cold-forged from a bronze ingot, as seen from hammer marks on its undecorated back. The bronze blank was likely repeatedly heated to avoid or remove stress cracks. The original color was probably not greenish: the current green coloration caused by a malachite corrosion layer developed only during its long burial in the ground. Since the golden stars would have had little contrast against polished bronze, chemist and restorer Christian-Heinrich Wunderlich speculates that the Bronze Age smiths treated the bronze. Experiments show that low-tin bronze like the Sky Disc acquires a black-blue to black-violet artificial patina after treatment with a solution of urine and copper compounds. When polished beforehand, the patina gains a good sheen. The inserted gold appliqués remain unchanged by the treatment, forming a good contrast. The unalloyed gold appliqués were inlaid using the technique of encrustation. Dating is possible due to associated finds: the accompanying finds (bronze swords, two axes, a chisel, and fragments of spiral arm rings) date to around 1600 BC. As the bronze swords were unused, it can be assumed that the Sky Disc was buried around this time with the other finds. Unusually for an archaeological artifact, the disc was likely modified multiple times during its use, as reconstructed from overlapping modifications. Initially, the gold appliqués consisted of 32 round plates, one larger round plate, and a crescent-shaped plate. Seven of the small plates are closely grouped a bit above between the round and the crescent-shaped plate. Later, the so-called horizon arcs were added to the left and right edges, made of gold of different origin, as indicated by its chemical components. To make room for the horizon arcs, one gold plate on the left was slightly shifted to the center, and two on the right were covered, leaving 30 plates visible. The second addition is another arc at the bottom edge, again made of gold of different origin. This so-called solar barque is structured with two nearly parallel lines, with fine cross-hatching carved into the bronze plate at its outer edges. Before being buried, the disc was modified a third time: the left horizon arc was already missing, and the disc was punched around the edge with 39 very regular, approximately 3-millimeter holes.

The Ear of Dionysius

The Ear of Dionysius is one of the artificial grottos of the Latomia del Paradiso in the Neapolis Archaeological Park in Syracuse. Latomias were the ancient quarries from which the material for building the structures in the Greek city was extracted. The cavity is 23 meters high, 11 meters wide, and over 60 meters deep. Its unique S-shape gives it very special acoustic properties. Even the faintest sound is amplified up to 16 times and can be heard throughout the cave. Its shape and properties have always inspired the imagination of writers and scholars. According to legend, the Ear of Dionysius was used by Dionysius I to hold his enemies captive, eavesdropping on their conversations from a small room hidden in the upper part of the cave. Dionysius I, known as the Elder, was the tyrant of Syracuse who ruled the city-state for about 40 years in the 4th century BC. Historical sources paint a very ambivalent picture of the tyrant. On one hand, he is described as a man of great culture and a patron who hosted figures such as Plato, Philoxenus, and Aristippus of Cyrene in the city; on the other hand, a cruel and evil side of the tyrant is also evident. Cicero, in his Tusculanae Disputationes, recounts numerous anecdotes from the life of Dionysius I. The most important one is passed down by Diodorus Siculus and Elianus, stating that Dionysius imprisoned the poet Philoxenus "in the most beautiful cave of the Latomias" because he disliked his poems. Of course, this does not necessarily refer to the Ear of Dionysius itself. Rather, it could be an allusion to other artificial caves, such as the Grotta dei Cordari or the Grotta del Salnitro. However, several historical sources confirm that the Latomias of Syracuse were used as a prison even before the reign of Dionysius I. Thucydides reports in his work History of the Peloponnesian War that during the Athenian expedition to Sicily between 415 and 413 BC, 7,000 soldiers were captured and imprisoned in the Latomias. A few centuries later, Cicero described the Latomias in his work Verrine as follows:

"You have all heard of the quarries of Syracuse. Many of you know them. They are a mighty and magnificent work, the work of the old kings and tyrants. The whole place is hewn out of rock, which has been hollowed out to an incredible depth, and worked out by the labor of many men. One can imagine nothing so closed against any escape, so fenced in on every side, so secure for keeping prisoners. Even from other cities of Sicily, people are brought into these quarries when they are to be arrested by order of the authorities."

Cicero, Verrine, II 5, 68

Archimedes and the Antikythera

Little is known about the life of Archimedes, and much is considered legend. Archimedes, born around 287 BC, likely in the port city of Syracuse in Sicily, was the son of Pheidias, an astronomer at the court of Hieron II of Syracuse. He was friends with Hieron and his son and co-regent Gelon II and possibly related to them. During an extended stay in Alexandria, where the Alexandrian School had been established, Archimedes met mathematicians Conon, Dositheos, and Eratosthenes, with whom he later corresponded. Upon returning to Syracuse, he pursued mathematics and practical physics (mechanics). His war machines were used in the defense of Syracuse against the Roman siege in the Second Punic War.  During the capture of Syracuse in 212 BC, after a three-year siege by the Roman general M. Claudius Marcellus, Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier, much to the regret of Marcellus, who wanted to capture him alive. Plutarch refers to several versions of the circumstances in his biography of Marcellus; in one, Archimedes was engaged in a mathematical proof and asked a soldier looting the city not to disturb him, whereupon the soldier killed him. The words "Noli turbare circulos meos" (Latin for: "Do not disturb my circles"), which Archimedes is said to have spoken, have become proverbial. According to Plutarch, Archimedes had requested a tomb with the depiction of a sphere and a cylinder, as he was particularly proud of his treatise "On the Sphere and Cylinder." In this work, written in 225 BC, Archimedes described the relationship between the volume and surface area of a sphere and a circumscribing cylinder of the same diameter, proving that this ratio is ⅔. Cicero reports in the Tusculanae Disputationes that during his time as quaestor in Sicily (75 BC), he searched for Archimedes' tomb and found it near the gate to Agrigent, overgrown with brush. A biography written by his friend Heracleides has not been preserved.

The "Dial of Destiny," better known as the Antikythera

It is well known that the Indiana Jones series connects most of its adventures with coveted artifacts from around the world. Very often, these artifacts actually existed in history and carried a trace of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, making them an ideal subject for Indiana Jones to find and witness their power. So what is the artifact "Dial of Destiny" in real archaeological history? From underwater discoveries to breathtaking technical awe: the Dial of Destiny in the real world was an amazing discovery and definitely full of mysteries that justify a fictional extrapolation in the Indiana Jones series. Let's dive deep into the treasure. "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" used the enigmatic Antikythera mechanism as a magical artifact and retained many of its real facts and theories. Historically, this device was also found in the Mediterranean in 1901. Although Dial of Destiny acknowledges that it was found at that time, it divides the item's discovery location between Greece and Sicily. Although the ocean in which it was found is still accurate, the remains of the Antikythera mechanism were found off the coast of the island of the same name in Greece. Dial of Destiny did a great job of integrating certain historical facts into Indy's fictional time travel adventure. Just like in the film, the real Dial of Destiny is believed to be one of Archimedes' lost inventions. In the film, it is depicted as one of the weapons he uses in the Battle of Syracuse against the Romans. While Archimedes' historical creations are known for potentially repelling an invasion, the historical purpose of the Antikythera mechanism was more of a calculating machine than a magical one. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny connects the artifact with a time machine that could trace time back to the Battle of Syracuse so that Archimedes could try to change the course of the battle in favor of the Greeks. It was depicted as a large dial with many intricate gears, resembling a complex clock. Of course, the evil forces and Indiana Jones raced to capture the item and keep it from each other, hoping to contain or exploit its power. As great as the premise is, the real Antikythera mechanism has a more grounded but still fascinating function, which the film initially explains. After many years of research, the real Dial of Destiny was reverse-engineered and studied to understand the exact function of this complex clockwork, which was centuries ahead of its time. Based on the rough and rusty remains found, it is believed to have been intended to manually calculate the positions of the Moon, Sun, and planets in the sky and their dates, using recurring cultural correlations such as Olympic events (among others) that could possibly measure the time until the next solar eclipse. As so many parts of this analog computer were damaged by time in the sea, using this marvel of technology as a magical artifact in Dial of Destiny is an idyllic choice in an era where great archaeological puzzles are quickly being solved.

The Siege of Syracuse (214–212 BC)

Sicily was wrested from the Carthaginians by the Romans during the First Punic War. The Kingdom of Syracuse in the southeast of the island was a long-time Roman ally, especially during the reign of Hiero II, but also represented the last obstacle to complete control of the island. However, with the death of Hiero and the ascension of his grandson Hieronymus to the throne, sentiments in Syracuse became more critical towards Rome. Hieronymus, particularly influenced by the advocacy of two uncles, came under the sway of an anti-Roman faction, as did much of the elite of Syracuse, and sided with the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. Despite the assassination of Hieronymus and the ousting of the pro-Carthaginian elites, the Romans prepared for war against Syracuse to prevent the continuation of the alliance between Syracuse and Carthage. After the failure of diplomatic mediation efforts, open conflict broke out between the two parties in 214 BC, in the midst of the Second Punic War. Roman forces under General Marcus Claudius Marcellus immediately began the siege of the city walls and the establishment of a naval blockade following the declaration of war. Syracuse, however, was able to withstand all initial attacks through well-developed fortifications and with the help of Archimedes. During the prolonged siege, the Greeks employed weapons designed by the great mathematician Archimedes. Despite the Roman general Marcellus having ordered that his life be spared, Archimedes was killed by a soldier during the storming of the city.