That way the inconceivable course of events became tangible by establishing and constructing spheres of spatiotemporal order. "It was just debilitating," Kram said. 56 minutes, color. The Mystery of CHACO CANYON - YouTube The biggest mystery in North America is Chaco Canyon . THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON presents new discoveries about the intricateastronomical knowledge of an ancient Pueblo Indian people, ancestors of todays Pueblopeople. The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the "Ancestral Puebloans," a group of ancient people. That's where we go to heal, to pray,' said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. 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." "These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.". Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is one of those extraordinary gems and an excellent example of ArchaeoAstronomy. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. He and Wilson weren't trying to start a new exercise fad. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. The canyon itself has been carved from ancient sea beds by centuries of erosion. They have been used by many cultures across the world for thousands of years, from African to Asia and the Americas. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex . University of Colorado Boulder Regents of the University of Colorado An enduring mystery from the great houses of Chaco Canyon is the origin of more than 240,000 construction timbers. Now, with a definitive study, Anna Sofaer shows that the Pueblo cultures of the southwest US deserts were a high climax to this bonding with the skyCertainly Chaco was the great center of civilization in North America, long before Columbus landed.' Airs Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV. Its wide roads, circular ritual sites called kivas, and sprawling. 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. 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. Aerial and time lapse footage, computer modeling, and interviews with scholars show how the Chacoan culture designed, oriented and located its major buildings in relationship to the sun and moon. I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, That cant add up to 275 kilograms.. Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoan people, regard Chaco as a place where their ancestors lived in a sacred past. A new explanation of the mystery is emerging. Pueblo leaders speak of the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today.The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. The type of artifacts in the collection include the full range of Chacoan material culture -- prehistoric vessels, stone and bone tools, matting and sandals, ground stone tools for making corn flour, projectile points, hammers and mauls, hoes and digging sticks, corn cobs and turkey bones, and ornaments of shell, Turquoise, jet, and bone. Pueblo leaders speak of the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today. Well-paced and absorbing, simultaneously poetic and analytical, this film provides a new benchmark of understanding for serious studies of ancestral-Pueblo astronomy and culture.' An examination of the prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, which functioned as a complex ceremonial center, harmonized by extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads, and elegant light and shadow markings. These straps, which sherpas, or native mountain peoples of Nepal, still widely use today, loop over the top of the head. "It was just debilitating," Kram said. Jen has worked at KPBS since 2000. The consistency of cosmological and solstitial references among Late Bonito Phase Great Houses at Chaco indicates that the Late Bonito Chacoan elites power may have rested in part on esoteric astronomical knowledge, and an elevated cultural status for solar events. Being Native American myself (Cherokee) I felt odd about the spot being studied, trespassed upon if you will. Most of the putative lunar standstill and June solstice sunrise alignments comprise a subset of this SSE facing group. Concepts of housing the world are implemented in the architecture of lodgings, cultic buildings, settlements, territories, and the artificial shaping of the landscape. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) They used a log that weighed 132 pound. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder). That means my focus is building relationships and telling stories from under-covered pockets of Colorado. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. It is the summation of 20 years of research. The complexes also featured large circular ceremonial areas called kivas. Ancient Mona Lisa Mosaic Of Kadirli Discovered, 2500-Year-Old Objects Made From Goat Bones Discovered In Turkeys City Of Aigai, Fragment Of Unique Egyptian Sphinx Unearthed In North Israel, Ancient Symbol Seed Of Life Contains Hidden Secrets Of The Seven Days Of Creation, Siege Of Alesia: Last Decisive Battle That Ended Gallic Independence In France And Belgium, Ostrich Eggs Dated More Than 4,000 Years Discovered In Negev Desert Of Southern Israel, Artifacts Shed Light On 2,100-Year-Old Jewish Town In Judea Dated Back To Hasmonean-Era. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . 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.' They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. Others have suggested that the timbers were rolled rather than carried to construction sites, perhaps bundled within smaller wood pieces for protection or carried on the shoulders. They used sticks called "tokmas," which Nepalese sherpas also employ, to take breaks, resting the log without lowering it all the way to the ground. Redford, Robert (narrator) His first move was to revise the inaccurate 600 pound weight estimate by doing his own weight estimations on a log from his wood pile. A feasibility study, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2023). James Wilson, left, and Rodger Kram, right, use tumplines to carry a log weighing more than 130 pounds in Boulder's Chautauqua Park. Between approximately 800 A.D. and 1100 A.D., the ancient Chacoans built settlements . Engineered roads stretch across dozens of miles in straight lines to significant landforms, but with little evidence of travel or trade. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); }); 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. Pot from Chaco collection . The study found that about 1 in 6 adult deaths in the U.S. are related to excess weight or obesity. While the Chacoans left no written text, their thoughts are preserved in their works. of Anthropology, Sarah Lawrence College'It does an outstanding job of weaving Pueblo traditions of migration and human agency into scientific accounts of the past at Chaco Canyon, affording both forms of knowledge the respect they deservehelps place Pueblo people in their contemporary context, as well as explain the pastI highly recommend it.' Directors I felt that in opening the sealed rooms, the purpose of the rooms and their having been sealed being unknown to the archaeologists, something that had been meant to be kept there was being released. 56 minutes, ColorGrade Level: 7-12, College, AdultUS Release Date: 1999; Copyright Date: 1999ISBN: 1-56029-812-XDirected by Anna SofaerProduced by The Solstice ProjectNarrated by Robert RedfordWritten by Anna Sofaer and Matt DibbleMusic by Michael Stearns. 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.' 167-175. Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient peoples in the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. They built Great Houses, which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. There are no preserved timber scrape marks near the site, and the people of Chaco Canyon didn't have draft animals or even wheels, according to Kram and his co-authors. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy Ad Choices. Archaeological evidence suggests thatancient peoplesin the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. 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. 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. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Pueblo Bonito, a Chaco Canyon "Great House," once spanned hundreds of rooms and was several stories tall. A 1925 publication featured a photograph depicting eight young men from Zuni Pueblo carrying a log: four on each side holding thin cross-poles at hip height, with the log laid on top. Refereed proceedings of The Oxford VI International Conference on Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy and Culture and SEAC in 1999, Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the American Southwest, The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, edited by Stephen Lekson, Kim Malville, J. McKim Malville, Andy Munro, The Southwest School of Landscape Archaeology, Memory, Meaning, and Masonry: The Late Bonito Chacoan Landscape, Anasazi solar marker: The use of a natural rockfall, Religious Behavior in the Post-Chaco Years, The Housing of the World: About the Significance of Cosmographic Concepts for Habitation, The Astronomical Context of the Archaeology and Architecture of the Chacoan Culture, 2006 National Conference on the Beginning Design Student An Inquiry into the Intersection and Fusion of Astronomical Alignments and Sacred Geometry in the Design Process of Architecture, Foundation Studio, Naked-Eye Astronomy for Cultural Astronomers (2008), The Hooper Ranch Pueblo Sun Dagger Shrine Revisited - Revealing Greater Regional Significance, Possible astronomical references in the planning of the Great Hopewell Road, Visions of the Cosmos: Ceremonial Landscapes and Civic Plans (2008), Pueblo Folklore, Landscape Phenomenology and the Visual Poetics of Fajada Butte, Astronomy and the Design of Late Bonito Great Houses at Chaco Canyon, ARCHAEOASTRONOMY IN THE FIELD; METHODOLOGIES APPLIED IN CHACO CANYON, Ancestors and the sun: astronomy, architecture and culture at Chaco Canyon, 2013. 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. Written by Anna Sofaer and Matt Dibble. Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the largest boasting as many as 700 rooms. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. The duo and their colleagues described their experiment Feb. 22 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Wage theft is commonplace in San Diego. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is an historical fiction, a mystery and a love story set against the background of the American Civil War in the Southwest. Chaco Canyon Worksheets. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. 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. After three months of training with tumplines for six or seven days a week, Kram and Wilson were ready to try a real log. 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. This documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built between 850 and 1150 A.D. in northwest New Mexico. Lecture: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies. Archaeology February 22, 2023 How scientists hauling logs on their heads may have solved a Chaco Canyon mystery by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder James Wilson, left, and. Archeologists estimate that the main architectual landmark, the great Kiva of Chetro Keti, was . 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. Keep up with all the latest news, arts and culture, and TV highlights from KPBS. Your feedback is important to us. A potential calendrical station located in the vicinity of Peasco Blancos McElmo ruin is yet to be confirmed. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon: Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy 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. You've just tried to add this show to My List. Thousands of people, the ancestors of todays Din, or Navajo,and Pueblo peoples, may have lived there from around A.D. 850 to 1200. These structures offered humans a domestic sphere within a realm of wild nature, ensuring stability, centricity, meaning, security, familiarities, knowledge of controlling, social and power classifications. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy Educational documentaries Follow Browse more videos Playing next 55:42 The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy Educational documentaries 0:32 Sacred Tattoos of Thailand: Unveiling the Magic, Power and Mystery of Thailand's Ancient Tattoos Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. 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. To construct their multi-storied buildings, the Chaco people transported by foot more than 200,000 timbers to the canyon and most of their food and ceramics from more productive lands 55 to 70 miles away. 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. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Ritterbush - 2001 - American Anthropologist - Wiley Online Library Skip to Article Content Skip to Article Information That astonishment was Krams entry point into the mystery. Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. This newly conceived series (in progress) will bring recent revelations about the ancient Native Americans who built massive enigmatic structures throughout the southwest. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018). James Wilson and Rodger Kram carry a log with tumplines with the Boulder Foothills in the background. Shining light on the astronomical brilliance of the austere civilization of Chaco Canyon Narrated by Robert Redford. The activities in the Guide are primarily for grade-levels 5-12, although they also may be useful to college students. Survey results were assessed in the context of positional astronomy, Pueblo ethnography, and the archaeological record including published construction dates for the sites. He and Wilson weren't trying to start a new exercise fad. They first tried carrying a log on their shoulders. Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. 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. These include front-facing south-southeast (SSE) orientation, front facing east-southeast (ESE) orientation, alignments to the cardinal directions of North-South and/or East-West (NS/EW), and the construction of Great Houses at workable calendrical stations with horizon foresights for solstice dates. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. Workable solstice horizon calendars are now confirmed at Casa Chiquita, Kin Kletso, Headquarters Site A, Wijiji, Bis saani, and 125 m from Roberts Small Pueblo at 29SJ 2538/2539. They attempted their final test on a forest road leading to Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, carrying the timber using tumplines on either end. A single case is identified that may incorporate three of the traditions. 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 are hardly a new innovation. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. These achievements emerged a thousand years ago in the exceptionally demanding environment of New Mexicos San Juan Basin. Summaries America's Stonehenge? "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. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were used by the Chacoan builders to unite with a cosmic order. 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. It seemed unrealistically high to him. Thousands of people, the ancestors of today's Din, or Navajo, and Pueblo peoples, may have lived there from around A.D. 850 to 1200. (2019). Its just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.. Since time immemorial and across the world archaic cultures symbolically, mythically, and ritually accompanied the configuration and weighting of the habitat as well as the placement within. In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, edited by Bruno David and Julian Thomas, pp. Newresearch helps explain why. 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. The solitary tree was once thought to represent the living "center of the world" for the people of Pueblo Bonito, the largest of Chaco Canyon's "great houses," which was occupied between A.D. 850 . I don't know how they could have possibly done that.. This documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built between 850 and 1150 A.D. in northwest New Mexico. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. It is the summation of 20 years of research. 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. The latest theory is that the Chacoans may have used simple devices called tumplines, still favored by sherpas in Nepal, according to a new paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. This research expands on previous samples of Chacoan Great Houses to include all those identified within downtown Chaco, as well as a small sample of halo and outlier Great Houses. 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. But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. "Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads.". During the same period, the first cardinal NS and EW architectural alignments were also completed. On todays show, we hear from two Colorado scientists who recently discovered one of the oldest female infant burial sites in a cave in Europe. I found no convincing evidence for previously proposed architectural alignments to lunar standstills, June solstice sunrises, or equinox events. 1999. I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, That cant add up to 275 kilograms.. There is active debate among archaeologists regarding the relative importance of political, ritual, and economic factors in the Chacoan regional system. 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. 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. This film is relevant to secondary- and college-level courses in Social Studies, Earth and Space Science, Traditional Literature, Pueblo Culture, Art, Symbols, and Architecture, . The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, revealing that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings oriented in a complex celestial pattern throughout this vast desert region. It is located in the region known as the Four Corners, where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. Click here to sign in with 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. WIRED Media Group Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the. During the same time period, SSE orientation was dominant in the Totah region to the north at sites including Aztec and Chimney Rock. Krams experiment isnt definitive proof that ancestral Puebloans used to haul their loads, but Kram says his research suggests that that's likely what happened. 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 Wall Street Journal'A beautiful piece. Kram developed his own theory about how the Chacoans managed the feat, starting with his realization a few years ago that the assumptions since 1980 about the mass of a typical roof beam (viga) used in one of the great houses was likely too high: 275 kilograms, a bit more than 600 pounds. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder may have solved a 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery: How did ancient ancestral Puebloans transport heavy building materials to Chaco Canyon, one of the Southwests most important archaeological sites? New Mexico's Chaco Canyon was once the center of the most influential culture in the American Southwest. One of the tribes, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, has increased its efforts to stop the project. Each attached a tumpline to one end of that log to share the load. Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID. What is known is that beginning around the mid-800s, Chaco people began building here, creating multi-story stone buildings on a grand scale. World Archaeological Congress Handbook Series. In a 2022 study, they and their colleagues estimated that a pine log measuring about 16 feet longprobably weighed closer to 85 kilograms(a little over 185 pounds). The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Then the researchers hit on the idea of tumplines, which are depicted in ceramic effigies recovered from close to Chaco Canyon. By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. That changed the calculation significantly when determining how many people would have been needed to carry the timbers 60-70 miles. The sample of Chacoan Great Houses assessed for astronomical associations was unchanged from the mid 1990s to 2007. Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient peoples in the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. "It's just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.". Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. A majority of the Great Houses built before A.D. 1000 are front-facing to the SSE. Multiple Great Houses exhibit two of these traditions in combination. Pueblo descendants say that Chaco was a special gathering place where many peoples and clans converged to share their ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge.