OCTAHEDRITE METEORITE END PIECE
CAMPO DEL CIELO, ARGENTINA, 4.5 BILLION YEARS B.P.
£3,780
Classical Ancient Art // Form Through Time
Auction: Form Through Time - 21st March 2024 at 2pm
Description
end cut from a coarse octahedrite meteorite, iron and nickel alloy, exhibiting a fine Widmanstätten pattern
Dimensions
24.7 cm x 21 cm, 6.6kg
Provenance
Provenance:
The Michael Farmer Meteorite Collection, Christie's, London, 6th April 2022, lot 25
Footnote
Note:
This meteorite is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old, having formed around the time of the development of the Solar System. It is a piece of the large Campo del Cielo impactor, which fell to Earth in what is now northern Argentina around 4,500 years ago. When the meteoroid hit Earth’s upper atmosphere, the pressure caused it to explode into thousands of pieces, creating a spectacular meteorite shower. Of considerable size, around 100 tonnes have been recovered in modern times, making it one of the largest meteorite showers ever documented. So significant was this event that it was remembered by native peoples in the area for thousands of years after. In 1576, the Spanish governor in the area commissioned a search party to hunt for the huge mass of iron, which he had learned that native peoples used for their weapons, stating that the mass had fallen from the sky at a site they called “the field of heaven”.
The present example is an end cut, meaning we can view both the coarse and pock-marked exterior sculpted during entry into Earth’s atmosphere whilst also showcasing the fine crystalline structure within. These structures are known as Widmanstätten patterns, natural sculptures produced by the interplay between two iron-nickel alloys, forming into enchanting, ribbon-like patterns.