Luxor4u

A few years ago an egyptian farmer and his 'PR man tried to sell me a meteorite, but were not willing to
show me it..'therein laid the small but important sticking point!

Any how my mate Maria once wrote a book about meteorites:https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/produ ... _bEALw_wcB

At the weekend, I read an article about a forthcoming meteorite auction to be held starting tomorrow at Christies.
It seems that 'celebrities are interested and are pushing up the prices.
As I have a Christies account, I will be watching the online auction held in the States.

Out in the Great Sea Sand area somewhere must be a huge meteorite just waiting to be discovered....
Ps: My pension plan is to find it..'inshallah!

Is it a meteorite auction or an auction of jewellery made from meteorite?

Ancient Egyptian burials have been found with pieces of meteorite and beads made from meteorite too.

Modern jewellery made from meteorite material can fetch a high price. I understand most isn't really suitable for traditional gemstone faceting, but some exceptional peridot has been found and cut from meteorite.

HEPZIBAH wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 2:09 pm Is it a meteorite auction or an auction of jewellery made from meteorite?

Ancient Egyptian burials have been found with pieces of meteorite and beads made from meteorite too.

Modern jewellery made from meteorite material can fetch a high price. I understand most isn't really suitable for traditional gemstone faceting, but some exceptional peridot has been found and cut from meteorite.

I think it’s an auction of actual meteorites.....some of which may contain gemstones.

One of Egypt’s most notable meteor- related objects is the dagger found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. Its blade is made of meteoric iron which the ancient Egyptians knew as “sky iron”.

Presumably they collected such material from the desert..having spotted its arrival as a gift from the Gods!

Meteoric impacts in Egypt’s deserts also gave rise to the green- yellow glass globules ( known as Libyan desert glass) much favoured by the ancient Egyptians for jewellery. Again, Tut’s tomb contained a lovely example in a pectoral.

All the above just goes to show how much I know about Tut and his tomb treasures.

After my earlier post I vaguely recalled that there had been a notable meteorite landed in the desert of Algeria around the turn of the century.

Hmm... don't most if not all meteorites seem to land in deserts? How can that be? Surely some must fall on heavily populated areas.

HEPZIBAH wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 3:21 pm

Hmm... don't most if not all meteorites seem to land in deserts? How can that be? Surely some must fall on heavily populated areas.

Well....70% of the earth is covered by ocean and one third of the remainder is desert. The heavily populated area is a tiny fraction of that remaining 20%.

Very few meteorites of any size ( say the size of an orange) make it to the surface at all. Most explode somewhere in the atmosphere. The only instance I can recall of a substantial “ hit” was that which occurred in the Siberian forest early last century....and again it was an air explosion. Nothing substantial hit the ground. Come to think of it, wasn’t there a similar incident , also in Russia, a few years ago?

You occasionally hear of Americans witnessing a meteorite strike and then rushing out to scour the area for fragments.

Over recorded history there have been numerous examples of minor hits occasioning damage and death, but nothing to worry about

The sort of impact which caused the vast crater in the Arizona desert, or wiped out the dinosaurs, is, fortunately, very rare indeed!