THE CASAS GRANDES METEORITE
One hundred and forty miles southwest of Juarez, or El Paso del Norte, in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, are the ancient Mexican ruins variously known as Casa Grande, Casas Grandes, Montezuma Casas Grandes, and Casas Grandes de Malintzin, relics of a civilization that before the Spanish invasion occupied the country as far north as Santa Fe. In this ruin certain inhabitants of a small Mexican town, near to and which takes its name from the Casas Grandes ruins, discovered a roundish mass of meteoric iron.
The news of the discovery was published by Tarayre (1), who reported that Müller, the director of the mint of Chihuahua, during the course of an exploration of the great temple of the Casas Grandes, brought to light a lenticular mass of meteoric iron 50 centimeters in diameter, carefully wrapped in cloths similar to those enshrouding the mummies in the ancient tombs of the same locality. Later, Mr. William M. Pierson, United States vice-consul at El Paso del Norte, gave a more circumstantial account of the find in a letter to the State Department, from which the following is taken:
A party of these Mexican mountaineers, as a matter of curious speculation, commenced excavating in the old ruins of the Montezuma Casas Grandes, each man drifting into the old ruins at separate and several points. One, Teodoro Alverado, more fortunate than the others, drifted into a large room, in the middle of which there appeared a kind of tomb made of brick. Curiosity led this bold knight of the crowbar to renew his excavations, and when he had reached the middle of this tomb, he there found this curious mass of meteoric iron * * * carefully and curiously wrapped in a kind of coarse linen * * * Angerstein, Leroy, and myself have made up the necessary funds to purchase this rare and novel specimen, making it a mutual adventure, and have started a large mercantile wagon, capable of carrying 10,000 pounds, to transport it to this city. Our intention is to secure it for the admiration of the curious and the lovers of science. We shall have it safely lodged in the consulate within fifteen days from this date.
The letter here cited was referred by the Assistant Secretary of State to the then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor Henry, who took measures to secure the mass as indicated by the following extract from his reply:
It would give us great pleasure to subject a portion of the meteorite in question to an investigation in regard to its gaseous contents ; and if the gentlemen who own it will present it to the Institution, we will cheerfully pay the expense of transportation.
Nothing further was heard from the mass until the centennial year, 1876, when the Institution became the possessor by gift of an uncut block of meteoric iron, purporting to be the Casas Grandes mass, exhibited among the Mexican minerals at the exposition.
WIRT TASSIN
(1)
Archives de la Commission Scientifique du Mexique, Paris, Tome III, 1867, p. 348.
Une découverte très-importante a été faite par M. Müller, directeur de la monnaie de Chihuahua, dans le grand temple. Une fouille pratiquée dans une des chambres du labyrinthe a mis à découvert, à une faible profondeur sous le sol, une masse lenticulaire, de 5o centimètres de diamètre, de fer météorique, enveloppée avec soin dans des étoffes semblables à celles qui ensevelissent les cadavres anciens dans les tombeaux de la même localité. Cet aérolithe fut-il trouvé sur les lieux mêmes, ou fut-il amené du dehors? les anciens furent-ils témoins de sa chute? Il est certain qu'ils le regardaient comme un objet extraordinaire ; peut-être célébrèrent-ils sa chute comme la mort d'un dieu inconnu auquel ils donnèrent la sépulture dans leur temple. Une idée superstitieuse a dû s'attacher de tout temps à ces blocs de fer météorique que l'on rencontre en grand nombre dans le Chihuahua. Probablement l'usage du fer aurait commencé longtemps avant l'époque de la conquête par Fernand Cortez, comme celui de l'or, de l'argent et du cuivre natifs des filons, si ces blocs n'avaient pas été l'objet d'une superstition.
