[meteorite-list] artifacts and meteorites

From: Donald Blakeslee <blakesle_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:37:32 2004
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.20001206110523.0073f32c_at_twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu>

Thanks to all for the corrections. I don't have ready access to the latest
Catalogue of Meteorites, but obviously, I'm going to have to get it and go
through it. Just as obviously, I need to proofread my messages before
posting.

I was aware of the Toluca material being used by the local peasants> The
meteorite literature calls them Indians, but I think in Mexico they would
not be called Indios. Their usage of the Toluca material is very different
from all other groups except the Inuit -- very matter of fact technological
use. All of the other documented Native American uses I have involve some
element of religion.

Speaking of which, I am pretty sure none of you were aware of the Old Walpi
material because it has never been published. The following items were
found associated with the burial of an elderly man; apparently they were
wrapped in a bundle that decayed away.
        1 piece of stalactite
        2 white stone disks
        3 circular prisms
        7 stone nodules (2 white, 2 black) [differences in numbers not explained]
        1 dressed triangular green stone object
        1 white cone-shaped transparent object
        1 white prism
        2 long nearly circular stone objects
        1 flat red stone with crimson markings
        4 fossils
        4 water-worn stone pebbles
        5 flat water-worn pebbles
        2 pieces worked obsidian
        2 pieces green worked flint
        4 cup-like stones
        1 white stone mountain lion figure
        25 worked flint objects
        22 rough nodules resembling meteoric iron
        4 rough light-colored lightweight nodules
        6 smooth dark nodules
        2 small pieces stalactite
        4 fragments of a flat blue stone object
        5 pieces of green paint stone
        2 pieces of turquoise
        1 green stone with rubbed surface
        1 flat yellow stone with rubbed surface
        1 stone with numerous lines
They appear to be the gear of a shaman -- the sort of items that would be
used in what is called a cosmogram -- a set of objects arranged so as to
replicate the essential order of the universe.

The burial goods sat in the Field Museum for many years. I e-mailed the
curator as soon as I heard about this find, but apparently repatriation
discussions were already under way with the Hopis, and I never got a reply.
 I don't think that any geologist ever determined the identity of the
various vaguely described items. The rough nodules of meteoric iron (if
they actually were meteoric) could either be a decomposed weathered
meteorite like Bloody Basin or fragments of Canyon Diablo.

Any news coverage that Frank is able to turn up on the Willamette meteorite
will be of interest to me and probably to a lot of people on the list. He
makes reference to an Indian legend about the fall of the meteorite, which
is pretty clearly a glacial transport. True enough. But the legend makes
quite clear that the Indians knew that objects like it fell from the sky,
so they knew a bit more than Thomas Jefferson. In fact, I have been trying
to assemble a list of everything that just one tribe had to say about
meteorites -- as encoded in legends -- and I'll share it with the list when
it is a bit further along. It has some interesting implications.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent in information. This is agreat list.
Received on Wed 06 Dec 2000 12:05:23 PM PST