the mystery of chaco canyon transcript

Concepts of housing the world are implemented in the architecture of lodgings, cultic buildings, settlements, territories, and the artificial shaping of the landscape. 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. The irritation paid off. Weiner said the team's results show that supplying Chaco Canyon with goods may not have been as back-breaking an undertaking as archaeologists once assumed. Chaco Canyon was the center of the ancestral Puebloan world, home to immense great houses as high as five stories tall and containing as many as 800 rooms, cavernous kivas built so that dancers . This third orientation tradition may represent some form of cultural affiliation with contemporary Rio Grande Valley people based upon comparison to previous orientation studies conducted by Lakatos, or it may perhaps represent an alternative cosmological intent. I cut a 1-foot-long section of pine and weighed it on my bathroom scale, said Kram. "Maybe the best way is to do it yourself.. That's where we go to heal, to pray,'" said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. 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. The one hour documentary, narrated by Robert Redford . They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. 167-175. It's now a Guinness World Record, Hundreds of students march on the Colorado Capitol to demand action on gun violence, Nevada tribe claims desecration as digging begins at site of planned lithium mine, What was life like 10,000 years ago? These and other bizarre encounters suggest the park may be a portal between our world and distant star system. Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. The two made three round trips over the course of the day. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the largest boasting as many as 700 rooms. Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. 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 Mystery of Chaco Canyon. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . Shining light on the astronomical brilliance of the austere civilization of Chaco Canyon Narrated by Robert Redford. 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 structures and ruins are protected from destruction and development and . 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. 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. Pot from Chaco collection . Stephen Lekson, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder, "The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico", Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, News study outlines air pollution from Tijuana sewage, Art Show: 'The Possibility of Something Happening', Current rainy season could be a drought buster, forecaster says, Settlement reached in Tijuana sewage lawsuit, Brittney Griner urges the return of U.S. detainees abroad at NAACP Image Awards, Washington state attorney general says FDA rules on abortion drug are unreasonable, An Arizona driver is in custody after crashing into bicycling group, killing 2, How Cardiff's new farmers market may help keep small farms in business, San Diego officials work to stop elephant poaching. Under the terms of a U.S. National Park Service field research permit some location- specific site data has been deliberately redacted from this document, as required by the U.S. Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. After three months of training with tumplines for six or seven days a week, Kram and Wilson were ready to try a real log. "These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.". Summaries America's Stonehenge? Nonetheless, there is general acceptance among archaeologists of the idea that visual astronomy had a role in Chacoan culture, if for no other reason than to provide a calendrical system. In consequence and accompanying hominid evolution, which caused a partially freeing up from strong drives, organizing the world into a meaningful consistent and dynamic framework of interacting subsystems was necessary to integrate and orientate the human lifeworld within changing natural ecospheres. "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. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. and Terms of Use. Kram rewrote history when he published a paper showing the Chaco logs were actually much lighter, weighing closer to 200 pounds. The Mystery of Chaco Canyoncontinues to impact and inform audiences in significant ways; 800 K-12 schools and colleges have purchased copies ofThe Mystery of Chaco Canyonto teach about the remarkable archaeoastronomy of the ancient Pueblo people of Chaco. 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. Archaeologist Bill Lipe thinks religion was a . The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon reveals that, instead, Chaco was a complex ceremonial center with extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads. 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. Half hour versions of both films are avaliable for teaching (please emailinfo@bullfrogfilms.comfor this option). CU Boulder Today is created by Strategic Relations and Communications. 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. 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.' In and around Chaco Canyon, archaeologists have found ceramic effigies illustrating Puebloan people using tumplines to carry resources, as well as yucca fiber wraps that could be the remains of ancient tumplines.. However, Kram et al. An enduring mystery from the great houses of Chaco Canyon is the origin of more than 240,000 construction timbers. It feels a little weird to have something pressing on your head for hours on hours, but it doesn't do any real damage, he said. Its wide roads, circular ritual sites called kivas, and sprawling. It is the summation of 20 years of research. Chaco is also an enduring enigma for researchers. 56 minutes, color. I cut a section that was one foot long and I weighed it on my bathroom scale. Complete List Of Included Worksheets. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. There is one account of the timbers for Pueblo Bonita being hauled on little wagons made of a small tree, with a cross-section at either end serving as a rudimentary wheel. The teams findings suggest that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. Ancient Chaco. Wilson and Kram rest their log on supports called "tokmas." The team's 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. James A. Wilson et al, Were timbers transported to Chaco using tumplines? The canyon itself has been carved from ancient sea beds by centuries of erosion. Tour starts at 7:15AM from Equinox Bar just off the Hotel Chaco lobby | 2000 Bellemah Ave NW, Albuquerque, NM and ends at 5:45PM at the same location. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. 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. 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 most uncomfortable part, Wilson noted, was the strap of the tumpline rubbing into his head. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Since the discovery of the prehistoric ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, their purpose has baffled archaeologists. 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. 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." 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). Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say they may have solved this 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery. The study found that about 1 in 6 adult deaths in the U.S. are related to excess weight or obesity. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. It is the summation of 20 years of research. You've just tried to add this show to My List. A majority of the Great Houses built before A.D. 1000 are front-facing to the SSE. Dec 3, 2018. February 17, 2014 Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is one of the largest archeoastronmical sites in the world. 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. W. David Laird, Books of the Southwest'The video, then, is a multi-leveled phenomenon, like Chaco, which embraces complexity, beauty and mystery.' 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. I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, That cant add up to 275 kilograms.. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. 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. It is the summation of 20 years of research. He read a statistic suggesting that the mass of a typical roof beam, or "viga," in a Chacoan Great House likely averaged around 275 kilograms (more than 600 pounds). 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. Abstract. 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. James Herriots adventures as a veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire get a new TV adaptation. What Does The Brain Of The Homo Erectus Fossil With The Lowest Cranial Capacity Tell About Evolution? 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 planned Thacker Pass lithium mine in remote northern Nevada has drawn protests and a lawsuit from local tribes. Significantly, recently a large effigy of Quetzalcoatl which was removed from the site prior to the Field Museum's 1961 excavation has been recovered, and the embellishment of the shrine itself as an equinox marker has been noted. 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. Music by Michael Stearns. 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.' 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. "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.". Read About our Chaco Tours in 360 West Magazine Article, The Dallas News, Adventure Pro Magazine and Cowboys & Indians. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. Dr. Gerald S. Hawkins, Commissioner, History of Astronomy, International Astronomical Union'A captivating look at one of the most impressive archaeological sites in North AmericaAnna Sofaer reveals the solar and lunar complexity of Chacoan buildings with impressive visual economy and clarity. Kram decided to take proving his theory a stepor haulfurther, though. 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. 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. "I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, 'That can't add up to 275 kilograms.'". The team's 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. The composition and photography could not have been betterthe publicwill eat it up and ask for more.'F. New Mexico PBS has broadcast this full-length documentary more than 90 times. Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, Sofaer, Anna (film director) Copyright 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), all rights reserved. In a remote canyon in northwestern New Mexico sits one of America's greatest historical treasures and one of the Southwest's greatest mysteries. 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 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. "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. "I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, 'That can't add up to 275 kilograms.'". "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. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. Ad Choices. 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. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. Chaco is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. Surprisingly, these buildings that required such large investment of labor and planning reveal little evidence of residential use. 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. [DVD] examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the. Register to request a quote. This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . What is known is that beginning around the mid-800s, Chaco people began building here, creating multi-story stone buildings on a grand scale. Pueblo leaders speak of the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today. 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. or, by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder. The teaching materials in the Guide are designed to be used with the film THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON. Joan Mathien, Archaeologist, National Park Service'I rate this video a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in southwestern prehistory.' Why did this society, ancestors of. Chaco Canyon was a huge ancestral Puebloan city located in what is now Northern New Mexico, about 100 miles south of Durango. The Fajada Butte petroglyph is constructed in line with a sliver of light that shines in different spots on the calendar depending on the position of the sun. Chaco Culture For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. They attempted their final test on a forest road leading to Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, carrying the timber using tumplines on either end. It seemed unrealistically high to him. Located above the Little Colorado River in east-central Arizona, a natural rock formation casts a dynamic shadow-line onto a panel of ancient rock art during the summer solstice. 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. For years, archaeologists believed that the 16-foot-long timbers transported long distances to Chaco Canyon weighed about 600 pounds. 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. Written by Anna Sofaer and Matt Dibble. That still left a bigger question unanswered, though. That's five miles round trip.. Focusing on the enigmatic monumental center at Chaco Canyon, the book provides a historical analysis of how Southwest archaeology confined itself, how it can break out of those confines, and how it can proceed into the future. "The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. 1.The purpose of the construction of the Fajada Butte calendar. 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. 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. "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. One of the tribes, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, has increased its efforts to stop the project. Read our affiliate link policy. 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. "It's just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.". 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. Speaker: Anna Sofaer and her colleagues Robert Weiner and Richard Friedman. Lecture: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies.

Masaharu Morimoto Signature Dish, Fluent Bit Multiple Inputs, Articles T