Meteorite Collecting among Ancient Americans

URING the past two years the field activities of the Nininger Laboratory (now the American Meteorite Laboratory, Inc.) have brought to light four new meteorites on old Indian camp sites in eastern Colorado (Plate 5) and western Kansas. The mere fact of these several associations strongly suggests that the aborigines recognized a special significance in these fallen stones. However, it must be admitted that, without additional evidence, these associations could be regarded as accidental. There are other reasons for suspecting that ancient Americans regarded meteorites of special importance. The Winona meteorite, 1928, was found in a stone cist similar to those in which the former inhabitants of Arizona buried the bodies of children. The Navajo irons, 1922, were found covered by a pile of stones and their surfaces bore numerous grooves which had been laboriously cut by the stone implements of ancient man. Under one of the irons were found certain ornaments. The Mesa Verde meteorite, 1922, was found in the ruins of the Sun Shrine House of the Mesa Verde National Park. The Pojoaque meteorite, 1930, was found buried in a pottery vessel on an old village site. It showed signs of much handling and is thought by Dr. H. P. Mera to have been carried in a medicine pouch. Recent investigations by the present writer indicate that this little specimen was a part of the Glorietta meteorite, the site of which is about thirty miles from the Pojoaque site. This fact furnishes additional evidence of human possession.