The Chaco Meridian Road Trip
About Leksen's experiential lexicon: Tulawetstiwa, Philip. "Forward in Three Parts, II" (p. xv). from Stephen H. Lekson. The Chaco Meridian (2d ed.) 2015. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Chaco Culture National Historic Park NPS 36.0530° N, 107.9559° W
" Chacoan World - A space in the San Juan Basin that may have represented the sacred geography of the ancient Chacoans. ...Puebloans and other Native American peoples often construct sacred landscapes based on the location of physical landmarks and the movement mythological beings within that landscape." (Vivian & Hilpert, p. 840) The Center of an Ancient WorldToday the massive buildings of the Ancestral Puebloan people still testify to the organizational and engineering abilities not seen anywhere else in the American Southwest. For a deeper contact with the canyon that was central to thousands of people between 850 and 1250 A.D., come and explore Chaco through guided tours, hiking & biking trails, evening campfire talks, and night sky programs.
" Chacoan World - A space in the San Juan Basin that may have represented the sacred geography of the ancient Chacoans. ...Puebloans and other Native American peoples often construct sacred landscapes based on the location of physical landmarks and the movement mythological beings within that landscape." (Vivian & Hilpert, p. 840) The Center of an Ancient WorldToday the massive buildings of the Ancestral Puebloan people still testify to the organizational and engineering abilities not seen anywhere else in the American Southwest. For a deeper contact with the canyon that was central to thousands of people between 850 and 1250 A.D., come and explore Chaco through guided tours, hiking & biking trails, evening campfire talks, and night sky programs.
Vivian, R., Gwinn and Bruce Hilpert. The Chaco Handbook: an Encyclopedic Guide. University Of Utah Press, 2012.
Fajada Butte rises 135 meters above the canyon floor. Although there is no water source on the butte, there are ruins of small cliff dwellings in the higher regions of the butte.
- Chaco Archive NPS The Chaco Research Archive is an online resource providing access to a wealth of information documenting the history of archaeological research in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The archive includes material from dozens of sites excavated in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and beyond.
- USGS Publications Warehouse
If you are interested Chaco human-environment interactions and maize, you might consider the journals sourced here (for purchase). - The Chaco Handbook: an Encyclopedic Guide, by Vivian, R. Gwinn., and Bruce Hilpert. (Gwinn, Vivian, R. and Bruce Hilpert.)
This is an encyclopedic handbook to help organize the extensive amount of information available for Chaco, as well as to stimulate speculation and encourage further exploration. 270 cross-referenced, alphabetical entries, 100 illustrations and maps, and histories of Chaco’s development and ensuing archaeological research. Entries address important Chacoan and related sites, place-names, archaeological and ethnographic terms, objects and architectural features, and institutions and individuals.
astronomy, archaeoastronomy, cosmology, archaeology
- The power of the Chacoans’ connections with the cosmos continues to captivate the public. At summer solstice our film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon was rebroadcast by KNME; and at the fall equinox the National Geographic Channel featured Chaco and Anna Sofaer in a program Chasing the Equinox. This program showed Chaco’s astronomical alignments in the context of the equinox celebrations of ancient cultures across the world: Angkor Wat, Malta, and Chichen Itza among others. The equinox alignments of Pueblo Bonito were shown in conjunction with the equinox light markings on Fajada Butte. National Geographic captured the striking contrast: a minute light marking bisects a small double spiral carved near the top of the butte on equinox day near solar noon and hours later on the canyon floor Bonito’s massive walls align to the sun setting at this key middle position of its seasonal cycle.
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Winter Solstice Trip. 2019
- Winter Solstice Sunrise at Kin Kletso Sunday, December 22, 2019 at Sunrise. Guided Tour
- Winter solstice 2019 in Northern Hemisphere at 9:19 PM on Saturday, December 21.
- MoonGiant Moon Phase Calendar
- Astronomical Almanac
- UCAR/NCAR High Altitude Observatory APPENDIX FOR SOLAR ASTRONOMY
- Wijiji is one of Chaco’s great houses, and may also have served to anticipate and confirm the date of the winter solstice, the day of the year when the sun reaches its extreme northerly or southerly point. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice happens near June 21, when the sun is at its northern extreme; the winter solstice occurs near December 21, when the sun is at its southern extreme.
- All you need to know: December solstice by Deborah Byrd in ASTRONOMY ESSENTIALS | EARTH | December 15, 2019 December solstice 2019 arrives on December 22 at 4:19 UTC. That’s December 21 for much of North America. High summer for the Southern Hemisphere. For the Northern Hemisphere, the return of more sunlight!
- The Solstice Project Santa Fe, NM 12/14/2019 Anna Sofaer The Sun Dagger Film Books and Research The Solstice Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of the rich astronomical heritage of the ancient Chaco culture of the American Southwest. Founded in 1978 by Anna Sofaer, initial efforts focused on the study, documentation and preservation of the Sun Dagger site, a remarkable celestial calendar of the ancestral Pueblo Indians. Subsequent Solstice Project research and films have revealed that the Chaco culture's ceremonial architecture was built to align with the cycles of the sun and moon, and that the elaborately engineered Chaco Great North Road was constructed to commemorate celestial north. Our research continues to enrich studies of archaeology, archaeoastronomy, anthropology and Native American cultures. Chaco Films & Videos Book & Researc Education Preserving Chaco
- The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Video 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. 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. 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. Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoan people, regard Chaco as a place where their ancestors lived in a sacred past. Pueblo leaders speak of the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today.
- Chaco National Historic Park Master Interpreter, G.B. Cornucopia, Explains Winter Solstice. December 28, 2015. Chaco Canyon, NM. 12/14/2019. Archaeoastronomers, Solstice, TravelAmerican Southwest, chaco canyon, fajada butte, kin kletso, travel, winter solstice Jim Walton
- [Aztec Ruins]
- Chaco by Camera One Video. One thousand years ago, Chaco Canyon was the ceremonial heart of the ancestral Puebloan world. Here, in the midst of a harsh desert, was a cultural oasis. Giant buildings rose like cities from the desert floor. Hundreds of miles of roads converged on Chaco... trade networks extended deep into Central America. The descendents of the Chacoans share stories and insights into their past. Official film for Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
- Lekson, S. (2015). Chaco meridian. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Lekson’s argument that Chaco did not stand alone, but rather was the first of three capitals in a vast networked region incorporating most of the Pueblo world has gained credence over the past 15 years. Here, he marshals new evidence and new interpretations to further the case for ritual astronomical alignment of monumental structures and cities, great ceremonial roads, and the shift of the regional capital first from Chaco Canyon to the Aztec Ruins site and then to Paquimé, all located on the same longitudinal meridian. Along the line from Aztec to Paquimé, Lekson synthesizes 1000 years of Southwestern prehistory—explaining phenomena as diverse as the Great North Road, macaw feathers, Pueblo mythology, the recycling of iconic symbols over time, founder burials, and the rise of kachina ceremonies—to yield a fascinating argument that will interest anyone concerned with the prehistory and history of the American Southwest.
- [Lekson, S. (2015). Chaco meridian. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Unveiling the ancient astronomy of southwestern Pueblo Indians.]
- The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. (2019). [DVD] 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. 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. 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. Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoan people, regard Chaco as a place where their ancestors lived in a sacred past. 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. Rather it argues that it was a center of astronomy and cosmology and that a primary purpose for the construction of the elaborate Chacoan buildings and certain roads was to express astronomical interests and to be integral parts of a celestial patterning.
While the Chacoans left no written text to help us to understand their culture, their thoughts are preserved in the language of their architecture, roads and light markings. 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. - Sutcliffe, R. (2006). Moon Tracks Lunar Horizon Patterns (1st ed.). Pagosa Springs: Moonspiral Press.
- Sofaer, A. and Contributors to The Solstice Project. (2008). Chaco astronomy An Ancient American Cosmology. Santa Fe, N.M.: Ocean Tree Books.
- Hughes, P. (1984). Pueblo Indian cookbook. Santa Fe, N.M.: Museum of New Mexico Press.
- Strutin, M., & Huey, G. (2000). Chaco A Cultural Legacy. Tucson, Arizona: Western National Parks Association.
- Vivian, R., & Hilpert, B. (2012). The Chaco Handbook. An Encyclopedic Guide (2nd ed.). Salt Lake city: University of Utah Press.
- Friends of Archaeology. High Desert Field Guides. Roads to the past. Highway Map and Guide to New Mexico Archaeology. (2011). University of New Mexico Press.
- Odyssey - The Chaco Legacy Video
- Archaeology Cafe The Chaco Experience
- Hopi Migration Traditions and Archaeology. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqcP8OLR2Eo Here is a discussion of discussing migration, what's allowable and not. Ability to collect clan knowledge and life, and share that knowledge.
- Archaeology Southwest
navigation, orienteering, weather
- Pueblo Bonito Enhanced USGS Map (2019).
Fajada Wash Latitude 36°01'03", Longitude 107°55'04" 36°01'03" 107°55'04"
...and of course, -DAMN! - Energy development (oil & gas, coal, uranium) is intensive in the area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park in Northwestern New Mexico. Chaco NHP is designated as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO and is one of the finest examples of Puebloan culture centers in the Southwestern United States (inhabited AD 850-1250). Our video at >YouTube < shows the encroachment of oil & gas development on Chaco.