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Woodcut of the Ensisheim Meteorite which fell in 



iron meteorite to which they appeared to attach religious 

 significance. No one knows how old it is. However, it was 

 unearthed during an archaeological dig in the early 1900"s 

 and presently resides here in Field Museum. 



In most cases meteorites which were seen to fall ended 

 up in religious temples of one sort or another. For over 

 2,000 years, in the ancient countries surrounding the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, meteorite worship was widely practiced. 

 Even today meteorites are kept in some of the older temples 

 of the middle east and the orient, especially Japan. Through- 

 out ancient times more and more meteorites were observed 

 and collected. They were generally considered to have 

 mystical significance and even today, principally in the east, 

 but also in such western countries as the United States, 

 ground-up meteorite powder, taken orally, is considered by 

 some people to have the power to cure a wide variety of dis- 

 eases. Man, nevertheless, has always been a practical fel- 

 low, and the possible mystical or supernatural value of a 

 meteorite, especially an iron one, was often overbalanced 

 by this practicality. Very probably the first iron metal uti- 

 lized by man consisted of objects pounded out of bits of 

 meteorite iron. A necklace of meteoritic iron beads was 

 found in a tomb dating from the First Dynasty of Egypt, 

 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Moimd-building jieople in the 

 New World similarly used this kind of iron. Those of the 

 Ohio valley made meteorite iron beads, and farther west, 

 near the town of Havana, Illinois, several meteoritic iron 

 beads were found. These objects date from about 400 B.C. 

 Later, the North American Indian, who, before contact with 

 Europeans, had not yet developed the technique of smelting 

 iron out of its ores, used bits of meteorite iron for weapons 

 and tools. In the meteorite exhibit here at Field Museum 

 a large iron meteorite, called Navajo, shows gouges and 

 scars where Indians attempted to cut out metal for use. 



Alsace, France {now Germany) on November 16, H92. 



Thus, throughout ancient times, and in all lands, meteo- 

 rites were known, used, and often revered because they fell 

 from the heavens. The Greek, Diogenes, suggested they 

 were related to the stars, although Aristode did not think so. 

 Later, in the Middle Ages, the German philosopher, Para- 

 celsus, pronounced they did indeed fall from the sky. Thus 

 it stood for some time until 1 772 when the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, then the center of western scientific scholarship, 

 solemnly pronounced that "the falling of stones from the sky 

 is physically impossible" and that meteorites, as such, did 

 not exist but were simply terrestrial rocks that had been 

 "struck by lightning." This pronouncement was signed, 

 among others, by the very brilliant AntoLne Lavoisier, who 

 is considered today to be the father of the science of modern 

 chemistry. The sad result of this was that some institutions 

 and individuals became embarrassed by their meteorite col- 

 lections and gave or threw them away. 



Meanwhile, meteorites continued to fall and be found. 

 Unfortunately, none ever fell through the roof of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, nor was any major scientist ever a wit- 

 ness to a fall. The reports of farmers and herders, even the 

 mayor of one city, were written off as nonsense. And so it 

 continued for years. In 1807 when a meteorite crashed into 

 the ground near Weston, Connecticut and two Yale College 

 professors went to collect it, no less a scholar than Thomas 

 Jefferson said it was easier for him to think that two Yankee 

 professors would lie than to believe stones would fall from 

 heaven. 



As time went on, however, the evidence became over- 

 whelming and in the very vigorous scientific atmosphere of 

 the late 19th century meteorites finally came into their own, 

 as the only real physical objects man has from interplane- 

 tary space. Their study has grown since that time, as meteo- 

 ritics, a word coined by the late Dr. Oliver C. Farrington, 



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