  Using the high dispersion NUV mode of the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph (STIS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to observe Eta
Carinae, we have resolved and identified over 500 sharp, circumstellar
absorption lines of iron-group singly-ionized and neutral elements with ~20
velocity components ranging from -146 km/s to -585 km/s. These lines are from
transitions originating from ground and metastable levels as high as 40,000
cm-1 above ground. The absorbing material is located either in dense
inhomogeneities in the stellar wind, the warm circumstellar gas immediately in
the vicinity of Eta Carinae, or within the cooler foreground lobe of the
Homunculus. We have used classical curve-of-growth analysis to derive atomic
level populations for FeII at -146 km/s and for TiII at -513 km/s. These
populations, plus photoionization and statistical equilibrium modeling, provide
electron temperatures, Te, densities, n, and constraints on distances from the
stellar source, r. For the -146 km/s component, we derive Te = 6400 K,
n(H)>10e7 - 10e8 cm-3, and d ~1300 AU. For the -513 km/s component, we find a
much cooler temperature, Te= 760 K, with n(H)> 10e7cm-3, we estimate d~10,000
AU. The large distances for these two components place the absorptions in the
vicinity of identifiable ejecta from historical events, not near or in the
dense wind of Eta Carinae. Further analysis, in parallel with obtaining
improved experimental and theoretical atomic data, is underway to determine
what physical mechanisms and elemental abundances can explain the large number
of strong circumstellar absorption features in the spectrum of Eta Carinae.
