The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Since the discovery of the prehistoric ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, their purpose has baffled archaeologists. The teams findings open up a new understanding of the day-to-day lives of the people who shaped the Southwest more than a thousand years ago, said study co-author Robert Weiner. Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is one of those extraordinary gems and an excellent example of ArchaeoAstronomy. The Late Bonito calendrical Great Houses may have been intended as pilgrimage destinations where people could witness a dramatic solstice sunrise or sunset. Its wide roads, circular ritual sites called kivas, and sprawling. In the process, we get a whole new picture of the intelligence at work behind Chacoan society and its architectureThe Mystery of Chaco Canyon interweaves a narrative that is both attentive to indigenous thought and values, and robustly grounded in the rigors of scientific method. Faculty-Staff Email Archive Student Email Archive Graduate Student Email Archive New Buffs Email Archive Senior Class Student Email Archive CommunityEmail Archive COVID-19 Digest Archive. So the logs must have been carried by people, most likely along the wide roadways that linked this world. It's probably more than feasible. Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6vhwh3rTB0rmu6mN9bj3A/joinMAD HISTORY .. HISTORY has no sides, no opinions no rig. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. Once you get it positioned so that it's right on the crown of your head, then the load lines up with your neck and with the rest of your spine, Kram said. Kram hypothesized that they pulled it off with tumplines straps that allow freight to be suspended from the top of the head, making it physiologically easier to lug heavy loads. In a 2022 study, they and their colleagues estimated that a pine log measuring about 16 feet long probably weighed closer to 85 kilograms (a little over 185 pounds). "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID," said Kram, an emeritus professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. And the published oral traditions and ethnography of the Pueblo and Dineo peoples descended from the Chachoans don't shed much light on the issue, either. It should be mentioned that archaeological work at Chaco Canyon had a significant contribution to the film. That photograph influenced many of the proposed mechanisms for transporting the logs. Instead, they were hoping to solve an archaeological mystery that has perplexed researchers for decades: How did ancient peoples transport more than 200,000 heavy construction timbers over 60 miles to a famous site in the Southwest called Chaco Canyon? It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. The team's findings show that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. Riddle Of The Ancient Sarcophagus And Its Strange Properties Can Science Solve This Mystery? The Mysterious Books Of Prophecies Of The Knights Templar Where Are They Hidden? Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the largest boasting as many as 700 rooms. Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. Colorado Sun. Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads, said Kram, who is a passionate runner in his free time. Yearning to be the center of everything, when we are the center of nothing: The parallels and reversals in Chaco, Hubble, and Facebook, "The Sky Starts at Our Feet: Anasazi Clues about Overcoming the Mind/Body Dualism through the Unity of Earth/Sky, A Sensory Approach to Exotica, Ritual Practice, and Cosmology at Chaco Canyon, MRES Thesis: The Fluteplayer of Chaco Canyon, Ritual, Timelessness, and Lived Experience in the Pueblo World, Materialities of Place: Ideology on the Chacoan Landscape, The Beginning of Prehistoric Settlements of the American SouthwestThe Beginning of Prehistoric Settlements of the American Southwest, Rock Art Studies: A Bibliographic Database_North America_United States_Arizona, Rock Art Studies: A Bibliographic Database_North America_United States_New Mexico, Unheard Voices, Part 1: The Astronomy of Many Cultures -- A Resource Guide, Rock Art Studies: A Bibliographic Database_North America_United States_Southwest_Navajo Rock Art, Great Houses, Shrines, and High Places: Intervisibility in the Chacoan World. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern throughout a vast desert region. Since its release in 2000, our award-winning film, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, has aired more than 10,000 times on 95% of PBS stations across the country. Airs Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV. Kram decided to take proving his theory a stepor haulfurther, though. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were the materials used by the Chacoan architects and builders to express their knowledge of an order in the universe.This is the long-awaited sequel to Anna Sofaers classic film THE SUN DAGGER, which changed forever our perception of Americas earliest Indian peoples. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. pointed out that there's no clear evidence that the residents of Zuni Pueblo share cultural connections with the people who once inhabited Chaco Canyon. "As they became more comfortable with their training, we began alternating training days between carrying light loads for greater distances and heavier loads for shorter distances.". For general inquiries, please use our contact form. Human porters would have needed to carry 16-foot-long wooden beams to Chaco Canyon by footfollowing a network of ancient roads to sites like the Chuska Mountains to the west. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. Chaco Culture For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. Directed by Anna Sofaer. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) With Chaco Canyon now declared a national park and UNESCO World Heritage site, visitors to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico can marvel at the remains of 12 great houses and more than 4,000 areas of archaeological interest in the rocky landscape. Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - In a new study, several researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder reenacted a small part of a trek that people in the Southwest United States may have made more than 1,000 years ago. "Tumplines allow one to carry heavier weights over larger distances without getting fatigued," said Wilson, now a medical student at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. video produced and directed by Anna Sofaer. I also felt that the place had been meant only for a certain time and a specific purpose, which thought was echoed at the end of the film. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. The teams findings suggest that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. Colorado scientists form a better picture after uncovering the earliest known female infant burial site in Europe, U.S. Officials To Put Off Oil Leases Near Sacred Tribal Land. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103876, Provided by The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the "Ancestral Puebloans," a group of ancient people. This documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built between 850 and 1150 A.D. in northwest New Mexico. NASA began researching Chaco Canyon in the 1970s, when the organization discovered some 300 kilometers of sophisticated roadways and underground kivas through multispectral scanning technology. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were used by the Chacoan builders to unite with a cosmic order. People relied on an ordered and organized spatiotemporal natural world domesticated in culture, into which human life could be embedded and from which life received a deeper spirit and purpose. During the same period, the first cardinal NS and EW architectural alignments were also completed. The film argues that the massive multistory buildings and roads the Chacoans constructed in a forbidding stretch of what is now New Mexico were designed to form a vast, stunningly precise map of the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon.' Ten years after the events described in Massacre at Point of Rocks, Dan and Roque joined by Doa Loca and Jicarilla Apache, Peregrino Rojo, are set on a quest by a dying Masonic brother. Understanding that it was sacred to a People was what mattered. The roads around Chaco Canyon would have been wide enough to accommodate a line of people walking next to each other in a row - an ideal setup for Kram's multi-person tumpline theory. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder). Study Traces DNA Of Inca Emperors To Their Modern-Day Descendants, 2,000-Year Old Engraved Kurdistan Tablet Referring To A Hellenistic Ruler Demetrius Analyzed, Does A 2,000-Year-Old Tomb Belong To Marquis of Haihun? "I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, 'That can't add up to 275 kilograms.'". Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder, "I cut a 1-foot-long section of pine and weighed it on my bathroom scale," said Kram, who lives on a wooded property in the hills west of Boulder. Most of the putative lunar standstill and June solstice sunrise alignments comprise a subset of this SSE facing group. I don't know how they could have possibly done that.. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were the materials used by the Chacoan architects and builders to express their knowledge of an order in the universe. Learn more about our captivating exploration of ancient astronomy in the American Southwest, directed by the Solstice Project founder Anna Sofaer and narrated by Robert Redford. Anna Sofaer, producer and director of the Robert Redford-narrated documentaries The Sun Dagger (1982) and The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (2000), gives a 6:30 p.m. lecture on Thursday, Jan. 24. Archaeologists have long been puzzled as to how the ancestral Puebloans managed to carry those heavy building materials that far - as much 60 miles away. These cosmographic concepts of habitation across cultures are transformed into designed landscapes, cultic caves, tents, campsites, houses, cities, or temples. The composition and photography could not have been betterthe publicwill eat it up and ask for more.'F. A summary of the film provides the teacher with useful background knowledge for his or her own preparation and to share with students prior to viewing the film. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon challenges the long-held assumption that Chaco was a center of trade and offers an explanation of the site which reveals the brilliant astronomy of ancient pueblo people. The SSE orientation tradition continued during the peak of Bonito Phase construction activity (A.D. 1020-1100). It is the summation of 20 years of research. "I had Dr. Kram and James initially focus on walking greater and greater distances with what felt like light tumpline training loads," said Carzoli, who earned his doctorate in integrative physiology from CU Boulder in 2022. The field work, conducted under National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management permits, included compass survey, theodolite survey, and photography at a total of 28 sites. In a remote canyon in northwestern New Mexico sits one of America's greatest historical treasures and one of the Southwest's greatest mysteries. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Although this solar marker is considerably older than the one on Fajada Butte, here in succession both the early morning shadow-line and Sun Dagger itself appear to emanate from the hand of an anthropomorphic figure, first bisecting a spiral and then, a few minutes later, an S-shaped image. - Feb 24, 2023 9:00 pm UTC. Long Mysterious Tunnel Discovered Inside The Khufu Pyramid, 220 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint Found On Wales Beach By Girl, Archaeologists Excavate Two Roman Bath Hidden In A Dark Passage Below The Streets Of Bath, On This Day In History: The Battle of Salamis Sep 22, 480 BC, Vikings Brewed Beer With Heated Stones Old Tradition Popular In Germany, Finland And Baltic States, Indigenous Communities Used The Caribbean Sea As An Aquatic Highway, Ancient Underwater City Of Heracleion Reveals More Archaeological Treasures. This small calendar allowed for those living at Chaco Canyon to determine the beginning . Newresearch helps explain why. The great number of circular ritual structures, called kivas, tell of large-scale ceremonies, possibly drawing thousands of pilgrims from across the region of the Four Corners. Archaeological and ethnological records worldwide give evidence that, since Palaeolithic time, cosmovisions were an essential part of mans requirement to organize habitats. Explore how the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their arch, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is a local public television program presented by. All rights reserved. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. This is the long-awaited sequel to Anna Sofaer's classic film THE SUN DAGGER, which changed forever our perception of America's earliest Indian peoples.THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. It seemed unrealistically high to him. Being Native American myself (Cherokee) I felt odd about the spot being studied, trespassed upon if you will. The irritation paid off. Read About our Chaco Tours in 360 West Magazine Article, The Dallas News, Adventure Pro Magazine and Cowboys & Indians. The sample of Chacoan Great Houses assessed for astronomical associations was unchanged from the mid 1990s to 2007. I found no convincing evidence for previously proposed architectural alignments to lunar standstills, June solstice sunrises, or equinox events. In the center of America's Four Corners Region, Chaco Canyon is an arid, desolate place, sprinkled with the occasional, lonely juniper tree, cactus, or sage bush. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon 2000 0 hr 56 mins Documentary NR Watchlist Robert Redford narrates this report exploring magnificent 1000-year-old Native American ruins in Chaco Canyon, N.M. At. This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. Left Coat Press, Walnut Creek CA. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. Chaco Canyon, a major centre of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250, was a focus for ceremonials, trade and political activity for the prehistoric Four Corners area. [DVD] examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. L'Astronomie culturelle la croise des chemins - Inti yaykuna : Annexes, The Chacoan World: Light and Shadow, Stone and Sky, Solar-Aligned Pictographs at the Paleoindian Site of Painel do Pilo along the Lower Amazon River at Monte Alegre, Brazil, The Primary Architecture of the Chaco Culture: A Cosmological Expression, The Great North Road: a Cosmographic Expression of the Chaco Culture of New Mexico, Remote Sensing of Chaco Roads Revisited: Lidar Documentation of the Great North Road, Pueblo Alto Landscape, and Aztec Airport Mesa Road, The Sun Dagger Interactive Computer Graphics Model: A Digital Restoration of a Chacoan Calendrical site, Lunar Markings on Fajada Butte, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Astronomical Markings at Three Sites on Fajada Butte, Pueblo Bonito Petroglyph On Fajada Butte: Solar Aspects, The Enigmas of Fajada Butte, Chaco Canyon, HOUSES OF THE SUN AND THE COLLAPSE OF CHACOAN CULTURE. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID, Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads," said Kram, who is a passionate runner in his free time. That's where we go to heal, to pray,' said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. "Once we corrected the mass of the timbers," Wilson said, "that changed almost everything about how many people were required to carry those timbers, how much time it would take to cover 60 miles.". Dibble, Matt (screenwriter). Krams big insight was that multiple tumplines could have been attached, side by side, to a single log, allowing several people to share the load. Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian, former Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona'I highly recommend this video for anthropological, sociological, and American studies classes.' "Once we corrected the mass of the timbers," Wilson said, "that changed almost everything about how many people were required to carry those timbers, how much time it would take to cover 60 miles.". He and Wilson, who was then an undergraduate in biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder, read up on the properties of dried wood and published their conclusions last year. The study found that about 1 in 6 adult deaths in the U.S. are related to excess weight or obesity. Cosmographic concepts of the world edifice can be regarded as holistic, multi-layered models of evolving human ecosystems, which, by using symbolic language, helped man making the world homely and transcending the profane. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. Rodger Kram, associate professor emeritus of integrative physiology, and James Wilson, then an undergraduate studying biochemistry, spent the summer of 2020 training for an impressive test of endurance: Together, they carried a ponderosa pine log weighing more than 130 pounds for 15 miles up and down a forest road in Boulder County, Coloradoand they did it using only their heads in a technique inspired, in part, by sherpas in Nepal. Chaco is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. Without permission or understanding. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. That means my focus is building relationships and telling stories from under-covered pockets of Colorado. Speaker: Anna Sofaer and her colleagues Robert Weiner and Richard Friedman. As a person who studies biomechanics and physiology of the human body, I was like, that's crazy, Kram said. Concepts of housing the world are implemented in the architecture of lodgings, cultic buildings, settlements, territories, and the artificial shaping of the landscape. She is originally from Las Vegas and attended UNLV. The sun beam lines up with different spirals or edges on the equinoxes and solstices. Kram said the next step is to do more experimental work - this time, on location at Chaco Canyon, where they can demonstrate the tumpline method works as they trace the ancient hauling routes of the ancestral Puebloans. They hit a hiking pace with the log of just under 3 mphnot much slower than their normal walking speed. For years archaeologists have assumed that Chaco Canyon was primarily an ancient trading center. Rodger Kram, associate professor emeritus of integrative physiology, and James Wilson, then an undergraduate studying biochemistry, spent the summer of 2020 training for an impressive test of endurance: Together, they carried a ponderosa pine log weighing more than 130 pounds for 15 miles up and down a forest road in Boulder County, Coloradoand they did it using only their heads in a technique inspired, in part, by sherpas in Nepal. The Solstice Project and Anna Sofaer give us a new view of Chaco Canyon and ancient North America correcting long-standing prejudices: the colonial insistence of savages on a continent that was, in fact, teeming with cities and civilizations Sometimes it takes a jolt or shock to open our eyes to reality, and the Solstice Project has been high amperage. Stephen Lekson, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder, editor of "The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico", "I am grateful to Anna Sofaer for involving me in her decades-long passion to explain this extraordinary and magical place." Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Half hour versions of both films are avaliable for teaching (please emailinfo@bullfrogfilms.comfor this option). Millions of years of history reveal . Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, Sofaer, Anna (film director) Peter Whiteley, Chair, Dept. Join this. "As they became more comfortable with their training, we began alternating training days between carrying light loads for greater distances and heavier loads for shorter distances.". Symbolically, the centerline of each of the three nearby Hooper Ranch Pueblo kivas aligns with this ancient Sun Dagger shrine. Director Anna Sofaer Writers Matt Dibble Anna Sofaer Stars Paul Pino Robert Redford (voice) Anna Sofaer See production, box office & company info Watch on Prime Video included with Prime More watch options Add to Watchlist (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder) By Daniel Strain, Nicholas Goda Feb. 22, 2023 It is the summation of 20 years of research. Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. The documentary is very well done, but its the PLACE thats the subject here. Located 72 miles south of Farmington, Chaco Canyon contains the largest collection of ruins in Northwestern New Mexico. 56 minutes, color. Pot from Chaco collection . Robert Redford, The video becomes part of the ongoing dialogue between archeologists, anthropologists, and native peoples [It's] a multi-level phenomenon, like Chaco, which embraces complexity, beauty, and mystery. Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, "A stunning piece of work the graphics are astounding and the entire production is powerful." The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. University of Colorado at Boulder. Click here to sign in with Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf / 1060 . They recall the brilliant knowledge of the ancestors that gave them control over natural forces, but suggest also the corrupting effect of such power. The halo Great House at Bis saani includes a cardinal North-South and East-West (NS/EW) structure, a possible SSE-facing room block, and a June solstice sunrise horizon foresight. Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient peoples in the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. The duo and their colleaguesdescribed their experimentFeb. 22 in theJournal of Archaeological Science: Reports. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Lecture: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. To test that hypothesis, co-authors Rodger Kram and James Wilson spent the summer of 2020 training until they could haul a heavy log some 15 miles using tumplines. They estimated that a 16-foot-long pine log weighed closer to 85 kilograms, or just over 185 pounds. 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