The Iron from the Sky
For centuries Greenland's Inughuit chipped knives from giant lumps of iron that had fallen from the sky. Then an explorer took them away.
What was reported
Near Cape York in north-west Greenland lay several huge masses of iron, which the Inughuit people called the Woman, the Dog and the Tent. For centuries they chipped flakes of metal from them to make knife blades and harpoon tips, in a land with no other source of iron.
In 1894 and 1897 the American explorer Robert Peary, guided by Inughuit, removed the three largest and shipped them to New York, where they were sold to the American Museum of Natural History. The largest, the Tent, or Ahnighito, weighs about 31 tonnes.
Explanations offered
They're fragments of a single iron meteorite that broke up as it fell, thousands of years ago. Peary's removal of them, and of six Inughuit people he took to New York at the same time, most of whom died there, is now remembered as a shameful episode.
- When
- Taken to New York in 1897
- Where
- Cape York, Avannaata, Greenland
- Witnesses
- The Inughuit, and the explorer Robert Peary
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.