On Tuesday, November 24th, Bonhams Auction House in Los Angeles will be auctioning off something that’s absolutely gorgeous: a skull carved from a 4-billion-year-old meteorite. The skull was carved by Lee Downey, who took incredible precise measurements from a real skull in order to craft the piece, which weighs a hefty 46.45lbs!
Reading the description of the piece sends shivers up and down my spine as it really goes into detail not only about the craftsmanship of the piece but also of the journey that it took to get here and shows how fascinating the universe can be with its creations:
Upon careful examination of the skull, triangular patterns, Stars of David and various other emblems of sacred geometry emerge. The surface of the skull is entirely free of any “dead areas”, pits, cracks or other marked flaws that are often seen in polished meteorite. Yet, most notable are the large “thumbprints” and “swirls” of crystallization which have never before been witnessed and, most notably, what could be called “light threads” being reflected by the iron nickel layers. By carving this particular specimen in the form of a skull, with its undulating surfaces, rather as a sphere, for example, entirely different features were brought out in the crystalline structure: these include “brush strokes” on the forehead and graphite spots near the teeth. A changing appearance is brought out under shifting light given the crystalline structure of the Gibeon meteorite.
As a final step, careful acid-etching of the iron was performed to reveal the notable “Widmanstätten pattern”, a unique geometric, crystalline structure caused by the ultra slow cooling process during its journey through space.
Downey explains his choice of meteorite for this project, “Of any material I could think of to fashion an accurate human skull out of, this Gibeon meteorite best embodies the “mystery” most acutely. I call him The Traveler… a true time traveler.” He continues, expressing the poetry and profound beauty of such an object, “A symbol of death, of eternity, of immortality, of demise and rebirth. This guy has made an amazing journey and it’s composed of pure natural symmetry. Nothing neutral about this artifact, it carries huge gravity and spending time with it is oddly humbling.”
If you want to learn more about the skull and the history behind it, you can head to the lot page on Bonhams.
