Chaco Interactive Project
[June 15, 2006 - March 15, 2007]
Through a graduate research assistantship at the Ohio State University, I was able to meet Anna Sofaer, the founder of the Solstice Project. The Solstice Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the life and culture of the Chacoan People. The Chacoans lived in ancient Meso-America and settled in an area near Albequerque, New Mexico called Chaco Canyon. There they built amazing buildings and established a culture that lasted several hundred years. The canyon rests in a harsh desert environment, near the San Jaun Basin. Today the site has been turned into a national park, dedicated to preserving what little is known about this mysterious culture. A good overview of the history of the site can be found here.
Anna Sofaer has made two films about Chaco Canyon, both narrated by Robert Redford. One is titled “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon” and the other is called “The Sun Dagger”. I was introduced to Anna by Alan Price, my MFA advisor at The Ohio State University. Alan worked on the computer graphics models for “Mystery of Chaco Canyon” and an analytical model of a sacred Chacoan Site called the “Sun Dagger”.
Anna’s research into the Chacoans began with her discovery of the Sun Dagger in 1978. She has since dedicated nearly 30 years to investigating the site. She still possesses curiosity about the Chacoans that she shared with me during the two trips I took to the canyon with her.
Visiting Chaco Canyon is like stepping into another dimension for someone like me who grew up Midwest Ohio. The climate is hot, but dry. You don’t even realize you are sweating. Heat exhaustion and dehydration are a real, dangerous threat in the canyon, because thirst can sometimes creep up quickly and cause you to feel dizzy and nauseous. It's especially dangerous when you are climbing on steep canyon-side trails.
You have to drink lots of water all day to avoid dehydration, whether you feel thirsty or not. Living in that climate where the nearest water source is miles away is hard to comprehend, but this is how many Chacoans may have lived. Once you are there it is hard to imagine people traveling 100s or 1,000s of miles to visit such a harsh place, yet archaeologists know people did. Many of the roadways built by the Chacoans still exist and they lead to Chaco from areas more than 100 miles away.
The canyon has steep cliff walls that lead up to large mesas. Some of the Chacoan Buildings are at first not noticeable when approaching because their sand stone surface visually blends into the canyon walls.
The sandstone masonry on the buildings is amazing. Many walls were placed with such craft that they’ve managed to withstand years of erosion. To think! Each stone had to be shaped and carefully moved into place!
Archaeologist can date different buildings to different times periods because on the methods of masonry used. Methods changed in several phases during Chaco’s development. It’s easy to see this in the main Chacoan building, Pueblo Bonito. This building is often refered to as “Downtown Chaco” because it is so much larger and more centralized than other buildings.
It was built and rebuilt for several hundred years. Tree ring dating in the building's large cedar supports allowed archaeologist to estimate fairly precisely the date of the buildings construction. Remains of some rock walls suggests that some walls were torn down, only to be rebuilt a few feet to the left or right of the original position. It is as if through the buildings construction the Chacoans were seeking to align with some sacred order.
It was really a special treat to have been introduced to the park by Anna Sofaer and crew. They shared a lot of amazing insights that the average tourist may not see. Anna’s research brings out the order and logic within Chaco and calls into question who Chaco's builders were and what they believed.
Once you’ve traveled to the Chaco Canyon it is easy to see that Fahada Butte is really a central point of interest throughout your stay in the canyon. We had a great view of the Butte from our campsite.
The Fahada Butte is where Anna discovered “The Sun Dagger” in 1978. She was documenting petroglyphs on the Butte around noon on the summer solstice and was a witness to a rare occasion. Luckily, she had studied archaeo-astronomy at Sarah-Lawrence and was aware of what she saw. Like other ancient cultures she believed the site was evidence that the Chacoans used petroglyphs to mark the solstice or other solar or lunar events. Some cultures, such as the Maya were known to have drawn petroglyphs that formed alignments with shadows cast from nearby rock formation on important days like the solstice. The Sun Dagger is a solar/lunar calendar that uses light/shadow cast from 3 stone slabs to form a calendar that marks the solstices, equinoxes and the standstills of the moon.
Convinced it was a “solstice marker” despite much controversy, she went on to prove much more. The site marked, not only the summer and winter solstice, but also the autumn and spring equinox, and the major and minor standstills of the moon. Since the day she originally discovered the site, it has been disturbed by high traffic in addition to natural erosion. The rock slabs that form the solar/lunar calendar shifted and the original system was destroyed. The site is no longer open to the public as a result. Luckily, Anna and crew were able to perform a laser scan of the site, prior to it's damage, enabling them to preserving the precise coordinates of the rock slabs that form shadow that marks the solar and lunar events.
Anna is continuing her research and has recently published similar similar findings connecting with the Chacoan Buildings. Many buildings such at Pueblo Bonito, Casa Rinconada, Pueblo Alto, and New Alto have alignments to the cardinal directions and the equinox. Many of the 14 buildings in the Chaco area have solar/lunar relationships to Pueblo Bonito or other buildings in the canyon. It aligns with Pueblo Alto on a north south line of sight. If you look closely at the photo above you can see Pueblo Alto in the distance. It is perched on a mesa directly on a north/south sight line through the 2 doorways in Casa Rinconada.
Each day at noon at Pueblo Bonito the shadow cast by the sun from the center wall completely disappears into the wall. This is because the center wall is due north/south and the sun is directly overhead. Also, on the equinox days the sun rises and sets in line with the buildings front wall.
Often times in Chaco a building will have solar or lunar alignment along it’s major wall. It is also common in Chacoan Architecture to see windows that face solstice or equinox sunrises or major or minor standstill moonrises and sets. Building inter-relationships are often aligned to these events as well. Anna has outlined her findings in detail in "The Primary Architecture of the Chacoan Culture: A cosmological expression".
Another unique aspect of Chacoan Buildings is the great kivas. Kivas were ceremonial spaces for Chacoans and they are numerous, especially in Pueblo Bonito. Directly south of Pueblo Bonito is Casa Rinconada, a free-standing kiva, which is the largest in the canyon.
On my latest trip to Chaco Canyon I had the honor of being a witness to a rare occasion. It was the Northern Standstill of the moon, which only occurs every 18 or so years.
At this time Anna was very busy, and was at last able to confirm her theories about several buildings orientation to this atronomical event via line of sight. She documented these events with crew.
As Anna shares the insights she has developed from her years of fascination with Chaco, it is easy to understand how she maintains a sense of aw with the place. It seems endlessly to reveal a language through both macro and micro aspects of its architecture. From tiny windows to 50ft walls to buildings situated 5 or more miles apart, there is an order and symetry to the place that speaks to the order of the sun and moon.