[meteorite-list] Meteorites in temples

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Sep 4 08:41:03 2005
Message-ID: <431AEB5B.5090409_at_wanadoo.nl>

> One of the sad things about being a specialist in
> one feild of science means that you tend to not
> have much knowledge of/interest in other feilds. I
> often wonder how many meteorites paleontologists
> have walked over in the desert, and how many
> valuable fossils meteorite hunters have walked over.

This is certainly true.

Concerning meteorites, archaeological research and Greek temples: one has to
realize that quite some excavations of such objects were done at a time that
meteoritics as a science barely existed, and archaeologgy itself was in its
infancy. Can you blame a 19th century archaeologist for not recognizing a
meteorite, when he worked at a time that scientists were not unanimous about the
fact if meteorites even really existed?

Today, it also depends a bit on which subfield it concerns. Classical
archaeology tends to be less multidisciplinary oriented (but there are
exceptions, I should haste to add). Prehistoric archaeology on the other hand,
often is multidisciplinary oriented (and archaeology should be in my opinion - I
have a PhD in archaeology by the way). In modern prehistoric archaeological
research, it is quite normal to do an analysis of the lithics found, as this can
for example point you to trade networks of raw materials. And meteorites have
been found in this way: one was found among the stone infill of a pit in the
British hillfort of Danebury for example. The meteoritic iron artifacts from
Hopewell mounds are another, wel known example of course.

- Marco

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Dr Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
private website http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
DMS website http://www.dmsweb.org
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Received on Sun 04 Sep 2005 08:40:59 AM PDT