30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I48 



distance of a great circle, and it passes through Braunau, Czechoslo- 

 vakia, where a hexahedrite fell in 1847. 



For what significance it may have, attention is called to two other 

 pairs of hexahedrites, Uwet, Nigeria and Aswan, Egypt, and the Hex 

 River and Bellsbank irons in South Africa, which if connected in 

 this order form two lines which are essentially parallel to the one pass- 

 ing through the places in Table 14 where the 10 hexahedrites were 

 found. 



Table 14. — A Yet Unexplained Distribution Pattern. 



Meteorite Coordinates 



Tandil, Argentina 37°18' S. 



Otumpa, Argentina 27°28' S. 



Corrego de Arede, Brazil 18°35' S. 



Siratik, Mauretania, Africa 14" N, 



Chinguette, Mauretania, Africa 20°15' N, 



Villanueva del Fresne, Spain 38°24' N. 



Opava, Czechoslovakia 49°S8' N. 



Braunau, Czechoslovakia 50°36' N. 



Nenntmannsdorf, Saxony 50°58' N. 



Hressk, U.S.S.R 53°14' N. 



ROLE OF EARLY MAN IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF 

 HEXAHEDRITES 



Few iron meteorites other than witnessed falls are known from 

 India and Spain. The reason may be that man found and used them. 

 As stated previously, man used iron in Asia and Europe long before 

 he did in America, Australia, and Africa, yet early North American 

 man is known to have fashioned some things from iron meteorites 

 and to have transported pieces of others from where they fell to his 

 campsites. Previously it was mentioned that the distribution of the 

 Coahuila meteorite is attributed to man. If some meteorites were 

 scattered in this way, man may have effected the distribution of some 

 of the other hexahedrites listed in table 5. 



The fact that the hexahedrites ranging from Texas northeastward 

 to Oklahoma are located in an oval provides good reason to believe 

 that man had little to do with them. In this region, there are no 

 natural barriers to prevent him from moving in a north-south or east- 

 west direction any more than in the direction these hexahedrites are 

 scattered. Furthermore, archeological studies in Texas (Shum and 

 Krieger, 1954) show no relationship between the oval area enclosing 

 the places where the hexahedrites were found and the culture pattern 

 of early man in Texas. 



