[meteorite-list] Test your Meteorite Knowledge, Win a Free Assortment of Micromounts! Native Americans and Meteorites

[Michael Gilmer]

Hi Phil,

Exactly!  I thought the same thing about Bonita Springs.  A big
100-pound lump of rock that isn't pretty, isn't covered in peridot
crystals or shiny iron.  Bonita was transported to a mound (pre-Calusa
in all likelihood) at a time when horses had not been introduced by
the Europeans yet.  How many people would lug around a back-breaking
rock that doesn't look like anything special?  Apparently the Indians
saw or felt something special about Bonita - perhaps they witnessed
it's fall.  The same may be true for Winona.

With Brenham and Diablo (or any iron or pallasite), it's easy to
imagine some Indian finding it and saying "Wow!  Look at this!  It
must be special."  But I can't imagine them saying that about Winona
or Bonita Springs.  A real mystery in my opinion.  I have personal pet
theories about Bonita Springs, but I don't want to share them yet
until I do some more research.

Best regards,

MikeG

-- 
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Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Meteorites & Amber (Michael Gilmer)

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On 5/24/11, JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Mike:
>
> It seems strange that the Sinagua people venerated an unusual achrondite
> (metachondrite) meteorite stone when they were so close to the Canyon Diablo
> crater and strewnfield. Surely they noticed how different the iron
> meteorites were from other local rocks. Yet they chose to bury an extremely
> rare type stone meteorite in the same manner as they would a child. Small
> children have been found buried in similar stone cists on pit house floors.
> This egg-shaped 24 kg rock was somehow special to them. Nobody knows why.
>
> According to Nininger,  the Navaho irons were found in 1922 buried under
> stones piled into a cairn. Ornaments were found underneath one of the
> meteorites. The irons had grooves on their surfaces from stone tools. Also
> in 1922, the Mesa Verde meteorite was discovered in the remains of the Sun
> Shrine House in Mesa Verde National Park. In 1930, the Pojoaque meteorite
> was found buried in a clay pot on a village site. Archaeological
> investigators speculated the stone was carried around in a mojo bag due to
> its signs of wear by handling. Nininger later paired the Pojoaque with the
> Glorietta, found about 30 miles from the village site. The Casas Grandes
> iron was found buried in the Casa Grandes ruins of Chihuahua. It was
> discovered wrapped in a "mummy cloth." The Huizopa irons were found in ruins
> in western Chihuahua.  Nininger adds that the meteorites of Red River,
> Wichita County, Iron Creek, Willamette and Cape York were all objects of
> veneration and the destination of pilmigrages.
>
> All the irons associated with aboriginal peoples make it even weirder that
> the Winona was treated as a special rock. We'll never know the story.
>
> Phil Whitmer
>
> _________________________________________
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> Thanks for the clarifications. Just when I think I am a smart cookie,
> I find out that I don't know jack squat. LOL
>
> So, I wonder what the modern finders of the Winona meteorite thought
> when they dug it up? Did they know it was a meteorite at first? And
> what other artifacts were found in that same hole (if any)?
>
> This makes me wonder if Winona was a witnessed fall? Would the
> indians have known that Winona was special and not just another rock,
> unless they had seen it fall?
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Meteorites & Amber (Michael Gilmer)
>
> Website - http://www.galactic-stone.com
> Facebook -
> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galactic-Stone-Ironworks/218849894809686
> News Feed - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516
> Twitter - http://twitter.com/galacticstone
> EOM - http://www.encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com/collection.aspx?id=1564
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> \
>
> On 5/24/11, JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Just a few minor corrections. Hopewell and Anasazi are not names of
>> tribes.
>
>> They signify prehistoric traditions or cultures, not individual tribes. We
>
>> don't know the names of prehistoric tribes because they left no written
>
>> histories. The large earthworks built by Midwestern and Eastern
>> prehistoric
>
>> American Indians are not burial mounds. While some contain burials, this
>
>> does not seem to be the primary purpose of the mounds. Archaeologists
>
>> believe the mounds were for ceremonial and social purposes. Some have
>
>> postulated the earthern structures were astronomical observatories. I just
>
>> saw a documentary on the Chaco Canyon culture where they showed how all
>> the
>
>> buildings, kivas and towers were designed to line up on the solstices. The
>
>> western Native Americans did not build mounds. It was the Sinagua people,
>
>> not the Anasazi, who interred the Winona meteorite in a stone cist dug
>> into
>
>> the floor of a pit house.
>
>
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