[meteorite-list] EL ALI 15.15 tonne IAB Comples Iron from Somalia

[Nicholas Gessler, Ph.D.]

Many of you likely know about this find.  Perhaps some of you don't.  In any case we have submitted from 3-6 abstracts on research on EL ALI for the MetSoc conference at UCLA in mid-August.  It is an odd situation.  Only one of us has actually seen it and only for a short while.  It is now in China for sale. We are working only on small samples and a number of images.  To sum up: This is the 9th largest meteorite in the world.  It contains 3minerals not found on Earth.  And, since my particular interest as an anthropologist and archaeologist it appears to show intensive, extensive and prolonged cultural modification.  It appears that the meteorite was mined for iron to make implements like knives and points.  In that regard it is a runner-up in cultural significance to the 1818 Cape York meteorites that were mined by the Inuit in Greenland for cutting blades using cold-forging, the building up of metal into ridges by hammering which were then broken off to fashion tools.  In the case of Cape York, that meteoritic iron was traded up to 1000 miles into the Canadian north.  In the case of EL ALI, we have no evidence of the tools that were made. Clearly, no one has ever looked for any.  We only have the concave decimeter sized facets that match those of Cape York as evidence.  Consequently, it appears that EL ALI and CAPE YORK each marked the beginnings of the Iron Age in their respective regions.

We would ask that anyone who has received images of this meteorite in addition to those posted on our website, to please contact us.
And we would ask that anyone who has samples of this iron also please contact us.  We only have a very small amount.

Please check out our website:
https://people.duke.edu/~ng46/El-Ali/

Please respond by email to the address below...

Thank you,
Nick

Nicholas Gessler, Ph.D.
nick.gessler at duke.edu<mailto:nick.gessler at duke.edu>
https://people.duke.edu/gessler
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