Provenance: Italian private collection

This specimen originates from one of the largest meteorite showers ever documented. It occurred about 6000 years ago over what is now Argentina after a collision between two asteroids. The area where the meteorite hit is called Campo del Cielo (Spanish for “field of the sky”). The velocity of the larger meteorite fragments was so high that more than 20 deep craters were formed. The largest of them is as large as a football field in diameter.
For the first time, the parts of the meteorite were documented by Spanish explorers in 1576. The individual pieces found since 1576 weigh from a few milligrams to an astonishing 30 tons.

The round and beautiful indentations on the surface are called regmaglypts and were formed during the fall of the meteorite when its surface started to melt in the Earth's atmosphere.

See also lot 1844, 1866 and 1901.