From Archaeo News
11 February 2012
A meteorite spanning about 1.6 feet (0.5m) across and weighing 205 pounds (93
kg) fell from space some 30,000 years ago in what is now Britain. And after much
sleuthing, researchers think they know where it came from and how it survived so
long without weathering away. The giant rock was likely discovered by an
archaeologist about 200 years ago at a ancient burial site near Stonehenge,
according to said Colin Pillinger, a professor of planetary sciences at the Open
University.
Pillinger curated the exhibition 'Objects in Space' at the
Royal Society's London headquarters (through March 30) and is the first time the
public will get a chance to see the meteorite. The exhibition explores not only
the mystery that surrounds the origins of the giant meteorite, but also the
history and our fascination with space rocks.
As for how the meteorite
survived its long stint on Earth, researchers point to the Ice Age. "The only
meteorites that we know about that have survived these long ages are the ones
that were collected in Antarctica," said Pillinger, adding that more recently,
some ancient meteorites have been collected in the Sahara Desert. This rock came
from neither the Sahara Desert nor Antarctica, but rather the Lake House in
Wiltshire.
"Britain was under an ice age for 20,000 years," Pillinger
said, explaining the climate would have protected the rock from weathering. At
some point, ancient people likely picked up the meteorite when scouting for
rocks to build burial chambers. [That does not make it a ritual offering, just building material.] Then, years later, an archaeologist likely found
the rock while excavating those ancient burial sites. The archaeologist then
brought the rock back to his house in Wiltshire, where its more recent residents
took notice and alerted researchers. "The men whose house this was found at
spent a lot of time opening these burial sites 200 years ago for purposes of
excavating them," Pillinger said. "Our hypothesis is that the stone probably
came out of one of those burial chambers."
Other objects on display
include a much smaller meteorite, weighing about an ounce (32g), and excavated
from a grain pit where peoples of the Iron Age stored their crops. It was
discovered in the 1970s at Danebury Hill Fort in Hampshire, though it wasn't
until the 1980s when scientists analyzed metal in the walnut-size object did
they realize its extraterrestrial origin.
Edited from Discovery News, Space.com, Huffington Post (9 February
2012)
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