THE MORRISONVILLE CHAIN.
On the morning ofTuesday 9th June 1891, the wife of a local newspaper publisher in Morrisonville, Illinois, Mrs S.W. Culp was filling her coal scuttle. As one of the lumps of coal was too large, she began to break it up. It broke in two, splitting almost down the middle. Inside Mrs Culp saw exposed a delicate gold chain perhaps 10 inches long "of antique and quaint workmanship."
Mrs Culp's first reaction was that the chain had been accidently dropped into the coal,maybe by one of the miners. This thought proved wrong. When she went to lift the chain out she discovered that, while the middle of the chain had loosened, the two ends, lying close together, were still firmly embedded. The chain was evidently AS OLD AS THE COAL ITSELF.When taken to an expert it proved to be of eight carot gold and weighing 12 grammes.
The coal in this area is between 260 and 350 million years old.
Geologists confidently claim that the first signs of man, ape like and incapable of creating something as fine and ornate as a gold chain wer around 4 million years ago. What culture could have possibly existed that far back in time?
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