Danebury Meteorite on Public Display

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Danebury Meteorite on Public Display

Postby David Entwistle » Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:25 am

I'm very pleased to report that the Danebury Meteorite is now on public display at the Museum of the Iron Age, in Andover. Many thanks to all those who helped to make this happen.

You can find opening times on the museum web page using the link below.

Museum of the Iron Age
6 Church Close
Andover,
Hampshire
SP10 1DP

You can read the story of the Danebury Iron Age Meteorite, by C.T. Pillinger, J.M. Pillinger, R.C. Greenwood, D. Johnson, A.G. Tindle, A.J.T. Jull and D.W.H. Allen' here. There are photographs of the meteorite and the hill site excavations, here.
Last edited by David Entwistle on Fri Jun 20, 2014 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Danebury Meteorite on Public Display

Postby karmaka » Sat Jun 07, 2014 2:31 pm

Thank you for letting us know, David!

Since when exactly has it been on public display? Do you have photos of the actual display in the museum?

Martin
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Re: Danebury Meteorite on Public Display

Postby David Entwistle » Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:21 pm

karmaka wrote:Thank you for letting us know, David!

Since when exactly has it been on public display? Do you have photos of the actual display in the museum?

Martin


Hi Martin,

So far I've only spoken to the museum staff who tell me it went on display a couple of weeks ago. That would make it around the end of May 2014.

I'll be travelling to the area in July and will try and visit and get a picture then. If there is anyone closer who fancies paying a visit, then we'd welcome a photo.
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Re: Danebury Meteorite on Public Display

Postby David Entwistle » Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:12 pm

David Entwistle wrote:
I'll be travelling to the area in July and will try and visit and get a picture then.


I visited Andover Museum on Tuesday 15th July. The Museum of the Iron Age occupies part of the ground floor of the museum, with natural history and local history occupying the rest of the building. A small, but very nice museum - well worth a visit. I'm pleased to report the Danebury Meteorite looked very happy and well cared for in its new home.

The new meteorite display is on the left, as you enter the Museum of the Iron Age.

Cabinet.JPG
Display Cabinet
Cabinet.JPG (37.81 KiB) Viewed 8410 times


The Danebury Meteorite is in a glass jar, but is well displayed on a small perspex stand and is well lit. There are no problems getting a good look at it. The meteorite looks to have had some curatorial attention since I last saw it at the Royal Society and there was nothing, but a slight stain, where the Lawrencite(?) had previously been, on the cut face.

Jar.jpg
Display Jar


There were a couple of sheets which presumably documented the circumstances of the find.

Pit Docs.JPG
Find details
Pit Docs.JPG (43.49 KiB) Viewed 8410 times


The information cards are:

Far left

What are meteorites?

The asteroids these kind of 'chondrite' meteorites come from were formewd over 4.5 billion years ago. It is believed they were small planets that were shattered by collisions early in the history of the Solar System. The material formed an 'asteroid belt' around the the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroids bash into each other, causing fragments of rock to break off and fall out of orbit. Some of the rock enters the Earth's atmosphere.

METEOR.... the flash of light we see when an object from space burns as it travels through Earth's atmosphere.

METEOROID.... the object which travels through space that causes a meteor. Smaller than 1km and usually only a few centimetres large, meteoroids often vaporise completely and never reach the Earth.

METEORITE.... the part of the meteoroid, if it survives the Earth's atmosphere, that lands on Earth.


Left:

The Danebury Meteorite

This tiny rock is the earliest securely dated meteorite found in Britain.

It fell to Earth in 350BC during the Iron Age. It landed in a disused grain pit at Danebury Hill Fort and stayed buried there for over 2000 years. We cannot tell if anyone saw it fall, but it appears to have ended up in the pit by chance. The chalky soil of the grain pit provided perfect conditions for the meteorite to survive. If it had fallen metres away into different soil, it might have corroded completely away.

The history and significance of the meteorite has only been uncoveredthrough a combination of luck and scientific research. It was found in 1974 when archaeologists excavated the Danebury site but nobody realised what it was. It was revealed as an extraterrestrial object in 1989 when the Danebury finds were analysed for their metal content. A slice was removed and analysed in order to prove tat it was indeed from outer space.

The newly-named meteorite then went into storage until 2008 when Professor Colin Pillinger tracked it down and rediscovered it. Now new studies are revealing more about where it came from and how it has survived for so long.

The Danebury Meteorite has never been displayed before in Hampshire.


Centre:

Scientific analysis

Studies of the meteorite actually help us to date the pit it was found in and confirm that the Hill Fort was being used in 250 BC. Radiocarbon dating of the meteorite's surface, from where it burnt up travelling through the Earth's atmosphere, show that it landed between 2230 and 2500 years ago. Other dateable materials found nearby such as bone and pottery, and the Carbon 14 dates at Danebury, support this conclusion.


Right:

Excavating Danebury

When Danebury Hill Fort was most active in the Iron Age, there were hundreds of pits dug to store grain. You can see a model pit here at the Museum of the iron Age. When these pits went out of use, tey were filled up with a variety of meterial including the soil from new pits. When that had settled, the sides of the pit often weathered, or it was 'topped off' with a second load of soil.

The meteorite was discovered in Pit 706 in this weathered second layer. Scientists interpret this to mean that the meteorite naturally fell into the bowl created by the settling soil, rather than being placed there, although we cannot be completely sure.

The Hill Fort was excavated in 1969 - 1988 by Sir Barry Cunliffe and his team. They dug about half the site. Around 2500 pits were opened and the finds recorded. The meteorite was originally identified as 'slag', the leftover material from metal working - not unusual on an Iron Age site. Other objects found during this excavation are on display around the museum.
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