Since I am having to be very specific, what I am asking about is an intentionally designed and manufactured visual interface with set areas of said interface designated for providing information about the state of some system or device. I may have been unclear by using the term “control panel” and that’s on me. But what I’m asking about is something like these examples:
(The very first one is going to be more similar to the Sopwith Camel example than the Enterprise D example.)
A mechanical clock?
Is that different in concept from the phone clock in your first image?
If you include the charge level on your phone, that doesn’t seem to be different from a medieval clock driven by a weight that needs to be wound up from time to time. You can see from where the weight is hanging how much ‘charge’ it has left.
This is probably just a more labored version of Banksiaman’s answer, but I think some factors implicit in DG’s conception of a control panel are that
–the information conveyed is gathered from a source, or multiple sources, that are A. distant or B. expressed visually in a way that is abstracted from their “real world” manifestation or C. both;
and
–inputs on the panel effectuate change at a distance from the location of the control panel
So watching a forge doesn’t count, a ship’s wheel and compass do count, and the antikythera mechanism doesn’t either (does not effect action at a distance).
Here’s the end of a boiler built in 1812:
There are two pressure gauges and two water level gauges. It’s not quite a dedicated panel, but it certainly looks like the sort of thing a person would stand near to monitor the state.
I’m not sure however that those are original equipment. The Bourdon tube gauge was the first compact, high pressure gauge (i.e., the common small circular gauges you see) and was invented in 1849. So it’s likely those are a retrofit, though maybe there was another type of gauge before. The water level gauges were probably always there, though.
Still sounds like the Antikythera Mechanism to me - look here, see the phase of the moon. Look there, see when the next Olympics are, look elsewhere, see the positions of the various planets. Also has controls so you can set things.
Clocks and other timekeeping devices probably should count as simple examples, though I was really thinking of displays that combined more than one indicator (pressure and water level on the boiler is a good example.)
For ships, I would definitely count an object that that included both a clock and compass. Don’t know how far back/if something like that was used, though–googling is finding recently made decorative versions that seem more steampunky than replicas of real tools.
The Antikythera Mechanism I’m waffling on–on the one hand I’m dubious about something where the output of the display is the whole purpose of the device. On the other, that pretty much describes a clock or compass, too. I mostly think of it as an outside context problem.
All of the OP’s examples are just readings, not affecting anything.
This is diverting somewhat from your OP, where it was about the idea of “glancing at a set spot in our visual field to learn an item of information”, which definition the mechanism very much meets. It has multiple dials, and they’re not telling us about the mechanism, rather about the thing the mechanism is modelling - would you say the instrument panel in a flight simulator is not a control panel, versus the one in a real plane?
As I understand it, the idea is now that the information must be about something outside the whole object in question? How does a phone battery indicator qualify, but something that tells us what the phase of the moon is, not?
It really isn’t.
You think this is frustrating? you should search for the pedantic train wreck when I asked what the largest ‘field’ was.
Good thing you didn’t ask for the earliest “sandwich.”
Seriously, this thread is an excellent example of two major empirical conundrums.
First, there’s the looseness of the mapping in the brain between words and things that confounds researchers into AI and robotics. A “control panel” may seem to be a exact fixed object but everyone seems to have a different definition. Same with “field,” “sandwich,” “chair,” and dozens of other words that have sparked furious argument over the years.
Second, the sheer perversity of Dopers providing the farthest-out, most-ludicrous-to-others examples of things, which are defended to the death no matter how many eyes are rolled out of their heads.
The one good thing is that threads like these give the best answer to the question of “what jobs can never be replaced by robots?” Obviously, it’s answering questions on the Dope.
Thag cut notches on spear, keep track how many kills. Small notch deer, big notch mammoth.
There’s your answer Darren. Question answered, thread over. 
I’d refine Banksiaman’s definition by saying a proper control panel must monitor at least 2 pieces of data, possibly in addition to having some sort of manipulation over the process. Though if I saw 2 gauges attached to a boiler, I’d say that qualifies even if the operator needs to insert coal with a shovel.
With that in mind if the Antikythera mechanism was in a temple and directed priests about the proper time to conduct certain rituals, it would be a control panel. But if it was a research device for Aristotle or a toy for a nobleman, I’d say no.
So Stonehenge (in addition to drawings and pottery) was clearly the first control panel, never mind that it’s not clear at all whether it was constructed with a meaningful astronomical purpose, and probably wasn’t monitoring anything. It certainly looks like a control panel.
Miners had copper badges. That they would take into a mine. When you left the mine, you would ‘cop out’ hanging your copper badge on a panel. Then the powers that be would know you are not stuck in the mine. IMHO, a type of control panel.
Of course some would forget, but at least would search for you in your home, and not the mine.
This may not be true.
Very good JohnnyLA. I was probably wrong about the copper badges. But was thinking about earliest control panels - And from here - MSHA
I thought I had read, but can’t find it now, that a miner would ‘cop’ out meaning the copper tag, to insure people knew they where out/on the surface.
• Every person entering the underground operations must ensure they have placed their personal tag on the tag board before descending underground.
• Someone should be designated to check the tag board to confirm everyone from the previous shift has checked out.
• Every miner that reaches surface must ensure they remove their personal tag from the tag board.
• Every person entering the underground operations must ensure they have placed their personal tag on the tag board before descending underground.
• Someone should be designated to check the tag board to confirm everyone from the previous shift has checked out.
• Every miner that reaches surface must ensure they remove their personal tag from the tag board.
Easy system, and I thought an example of a control panel.
I toured a defunct deep coal mine operated as a museum* where they showed the tag out board & explained the procedures.
But the procedure, as shown above in the MHSA excerpt was backwards from @enipla’s explanation. Miners hung their tag on the status board before they went underground, and removed it when they emerged. Not vice versa.
Tags showed who was underground, not who was home.
There are at least two brief scenes in October Sky that involve those tags and the board.
Here is a site that mentions them (the tags, not the movie):
I think the issue there is that both require human intervention. The human has to know the status of something and deliberately change it on the device. A pproper status indicator would show the status on its own.
I also understand the idea that a clock doesn’t count, but I would argue that’s because it is designed to show the status of something outside itself—i.e. time—rather than its own internal status. A clock that moved too fast or too slow would be considered defective, even though it is still accurately detailing its internal state.
The same is true of the Antikythera Mechanism. It would be possible for it to accurately detail the internal status of the system but still be defective. This is not the case in a proper status indicator. If a status indicator is wrong, it means that it is inaccurately detailing the status of its device’s internal workings.
And, yes, I propose the term “status indicator” over “control panel,” as the word “control” does imply that you can actually modify the statuses being displayed. This does not seem to be a requirement by the OP.
It looks like one particular specialized purpose was calculating the timing for sports events. Which are kind of religious rituals. 
I think you hit the nub with this.
In my biz we define the cockpit UI as composed of “controls and indicators”. The former are manipulated to affect what’s going on and the latter are observed to know what’s going on.
Despite the OP’s question being stated in terms of “control panels” his later clarifications show (IMO) that he really meant “indicator panel” or even simply “indicator”.
And yes, in modern colloquial and even fairly technical usage, a “control panel” is the common term for a combined “control and indicator panel”. Although the term “instrument panel” is also used for a combined panel, though one more likely to be indicator-heavy than control-heavy.
As a matter of mechanics sometimes there is overlap between controls and indicators, as with a pushbutton that latches in or out or that has a status indicator lamp or mechanical moving legend built into it. Even then we distinguish between the “control” portion, the moveable button itself and the act of moving it, versus the “indicator” portion which is its visual/tactile in- or out- state and/or the illuminated (or not) lamp and/or exposed (or not) legend.
As amazing an artifact as it is, I’m not seeing the Antikythera Mechanism as meeting any sane definition of a control or an indicator. It controls nothing. And independently indicates nothing about something else. You can manipulate it to display info about something else, namely astronomical alignments. But if that counts, so does an almanac that displays the same information in a printed table on a page.
Arguably a flexible soda straw is conceptually of the same power as the Mechanism. You can bend your straw to about 45 degrees and it’ll display an angle of about 45 degrees until you manipulate it again. Want to see 60 degrees? Bend it until it looks like about 60 degrees then observe its shape. You can even use it to duplicate angles from one object to another or act as a template for multiple objects you’re trying to make identically.
That way lies madness. Or at least pedantic uselessness versus the OP’s interesting question.
Totally speculation on my part but I suspect the earliest indicator that we’d recognize as such would be some sort of float gage on a container of liquid.
Like this
but with a stick poking out the top of the float rather than a rope; the amount of stick protruding above the top of the container is a remote indication of the liquid level within the container. Something like that would be well within 3000BC Bronze Age tech and in fact well before then. Which gets us back to well before recorded history and to an era from which wooden artifacts are not well-preserved today. So we (or at least I) can’t even hazard a guess as to when or where this was first done.
Weather instruments could be considered status indicators. The Sympiesometer was a barometer used on ships during the early 1800s which had both a pressure indicator and a thermometer for calibration. An early one from 1818 is depicted here. It was mounted on a wall, so I could imagine it resting near a compass and nautical clock.
From later during the age of steam, the instruments around this ship’s wheel give it the feel of a control panel, though without the panel itself. https://www.alamy.com/selection-of-old-copper-and-brass-ships-wheels-image240407051.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=56A39227-2C27-4078-9639-01485060D3E0&p=784125&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26pn%3D1%26ps%3D100%26sortby%3D2%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26npgs%3D0%26qt%3Dnautical%2520brass%2520steering%2520wheel%26qt_raw%3Dnautical%2520brass%2520steering%2520wheel%26lic%3D3%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26ot%3D0%26creative%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26pc%3D%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26tbar%3D1%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26archive%3D1%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D%26a%3D%26cdid%3D%26cdsrt%3D%26name%3D%26qn%3D%26apalib%3D%26apalic%3D%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26xstx%3D0%26simid%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D1%26nu%3D%26t%3D%26edoptin%3D%26customgeoip%3D%26cap%3D1%26cbstore%3D1%26vd%3D0%26lb%3D%26fi%3D2%26edrf%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26pl%3D
