Provenance
The documented history of a meteorite specimen, from where and when it was found to every owner it has passed through.
In meteorite collecting, provenance is the paper trail that connects a specimen to its origin. Ideally it records the meteorite's official name and classification, the place and date of the fall or find, who found it, how it was cut or prepared, and the chain of collections and dealers it has passed through. Old museum labels, letters, field notes and photographs can all form part of it.
Good provenance matters for science, for the law and for trust. Researchers need to be sure a sample really belongs to the meteorite it is labelled as, because mixing up two meteorites can lead to false conclusions. Legally, provenance shows whether a specimen was collected and exported in line with the rules of its home country. For collectors, it protects against fakes, which include slag sold as iron meteorites and common stones relabelled as rare ones.
Take a slice of Murchison, the carbonaceous chondrite that fell in Australia in 1969. A specimen with a good history will carry its name, a label from a known collection, and ideally a photograph matching its shape. Labels should travel with specimens. If a seller cannot say anything about where a piece came from, treat the claim with caution.
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