[meteorite-list] Re: Warning About Libyan Desert Glass Artifacts

From: kaolinite_at_ctc.net <kaolinite_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jun 8 10:43:59 2004
Message-ID: <1086705832-kaolinite-2.smmsdV2.0.3_at_localhost>

David wrote:

>"I have a question....are you calling Libyan
>desert glass "specimens" as we all know
>them, (melted fused glassy sand).....are
>you calling these "artifact"? I have not
>seen these Libyan desert glass artifacts......
>just the specimens. I have never heard
>them addressed as "artifacts" in the past.
>Could you provide us an example of the
>terminology of which you/authorities speak?
>Confused and fused,

The defintion of "artifact" called "artefact", by the English
and Europeans that I used is:

An artifact is any object created by human activity and
later discarded or lost. Types of artifacts, include
prehistoric stone tools such as projectile points;
ceramic sherds; grinding slabs; Neolithic and Paleolithic
blades; and historic artifacts include objects made of
glass; metal; brick; concrete; mortar; ceramic; and so forth.

Chunks of Libyan desert glass **unmodified** by prehistoric
human hands are **not** artifacts. A piece of Libyan desert
glass only became an artifact when it was modified by
prehistoric humans to produce a projectile point, waste
flakes, suckle blades, Paleolithic and Neolithic blades;
and other tools. These are artifacts, which would be
covered by Egyptian antiquity laws.

Yours,

Keith Littleton
St. Tammany Parish, LA
Received on Tue 08 Jun 2004 10:43:52 AM PDT