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Beads of Meteoric Iron from an Indian Mound Near Havana, Illinois*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Robert M. Grogan
Robert M. Grogan*
Affiliation:
State Geological Survey, Urbana, Illinois
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Extract

In the summer of 1945, members of the Illinois State Museum under the direction of Thorne Deuel, Director of the Museum, excavated a group of Indian burial mounds in the Havana, Mason County area. Burial No. 10 in Mound No. 9 of this group yielded 22 rounded bead-like objects, composed of strongly oxidized iron, together with slightly more than 1000 ground shell and pearl or pearl slug beads. As the burial was evidently prehistoric and of Hopewellian age, it was at once conjectured that the iron might be of meteoric origin. In January, 1946, several of these supposed iron beads were sent to the State Geological Survey, with the request that the nature and source of the iron be determined if possible. In addition, Dr. Deuel kindly made available the data presented herein on the nature of the discovery and on the size, shape, and arrangement of the supposed beads.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 13 , Issue 4Part1 , April 1948 , pp. 302 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1948

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Footnotes

*

Published with the permission of the Chief, State Geological Survey Urbana, 111.

References

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