Making the first cut to trim the 48 kg cube of Gibeon down to the skull size proportions. The crystal was not positively identified at this time and we had to wonder what might be revealed here. The crystal was getting smaller deeper in, but it remained at over an inch long after the final carving of the skull.

About 280 kilograms, this is the original complete meteorite before going under the saw. A clean cube that we needed would require cutting into the “heart” of the thing so as to avoid fractures and pits. It yielded a fine block of superb iron nickel to start mapping out a life size human skull.