|
Throughout the ages, meteorites have been venerated as sacred objects by different
cultures and ancient civilizations. The spectacular fall of a meteorite, accompanied by light and
sound phenomena, such as falling stars, lightning, thunder, and sonic booms, has always kindled the
human imagination, evoking fear and awe in every witness of such an event. For obvious reasons,
the remnants of these incidents, the actual meteorites, were often kept as sacred stones or objects
of power that were worshiped and used in the respective religious context. |
|
|
From Dawn of Time to Ancient Egypt
Actually, several native American tribes venerated the pieces and fragments of the Canyon Diabolo
meteorite, a giant iron meteorite that excavated Arizona's famous Meteor Crater upon its impact
50,000 years ago. Archeological finds throughout the United States and Mexico proved that Canyon
Diabolo fragments have been traded briskly centuries before Columbus reached the shores of the New
World.
The tribes of the Clackamas in Oregon claim that they once worshiped the giant Willamette meteorite,
one of the largest irons known, weighing about 15 tons. Prior to hunting, the Clackamas dipped the
heads of their arrows and lances into the water that had gathered in the large cavities of the iron
- they were convinced that this ritual would harden their weapons and grant them success in their
hunt.
The Winona meteorite - the type specimen and namesake of the rare class of winonaites - was found in
a stone cist in the prehistoric Elden pueblo, Arizona, in 1928. The circumstances of this unusual
find suggest that the builders of the pueblo kept the meteorite as a sacred object after they had
actually seen it fall, and that they finally burried the meteorite in the stone cist where it has
been found.
Native tribes throughout the world venerated meteorites, and similar stories have been told from
Greenland, Tibet, India, Mongolia, and Australia. Pure iron has always been rare and so it is little
wonder that especially iron meteorites were coveted by ancient civilizations as raw material for
cultic knives and weapons in times prior to the Iron Age. It's certainly more than just a
coincidence that nowadays iron meteorites are rarely found in regions that are known for their
flowerishing prehistoric metallurgic industries, but more often in regions and countries where
metallurgy played just a minor role.
Such knives and daggers have been recovered from the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs, such as from the
most legendary tomb of King Tutankhamen, from Mesopotamian sanctuaries, and the graves of the
leaders of the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca in both Americas. Similar cultic weapons
and daggers called
"tombaks" (often also referred to as "kris" or "keris") are also known from certain tribes in Indonesia, and they are still being
used in their respective cultic context and rituals, up to this day.
>> continue >> |
|
|
|
The Willamette Iron Meteorite
|
|
|
The Winona Meteorite Find Site
|
|
|
King Tutankhamen's Iron Dagger
|
|
©
Araldo de Luca
|
|
