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Massimo D'Orazio
Meteorite records in the ancient Greek and Latin literature; between history and myth (in Myth and geology)
Geological Society Special Publications (2007), 273 215-225
Abstract: Index Terms/Descriptors: Latitude & Longitude:
GeoRef, Copyright 2007, American Geological Institute.
A catalogue of citations related to possible meteorites has been assembled by searching the ancient Greek and Latin literature up to the end of the West Roman Empire (AD 476). The catalogue illustrates the attitude of ancient populations towards the fall of meteorites and extends the record of meteorite falls back in time. The citations are arranged in the catalogue as: i) "meteorite falls", when both the locality and the date of the fall are, at least approximately, indicated; ii) "worshipped stones", when the written and archaeological sources suggest the actual existence of a stone as an object of worship, but the information about the locality and the date of the fall are missing or vague; iii) "myths", when the connection between an object said to have fallen from the heaven and the fall of a meteorite is weak or obscured by mythological traditions.
achondrites; archaeology; collections; concepts; data bases; data processing; Europe; extraterrestrial geology; Greece; history; interpretation; Martian meteorites; Mediterranean region; meteorites; religion; Southern Europe; stony meteorites
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