We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. 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.' Chaco Canyon was a huge ancestral Puebloan city located in what is now Northern New Mexico, about 100 miles south of Durango. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. When I watched this I had mixed feelings. 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. This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. Music by Michael Stearns. In a new study, several researchers at CUBoulder reenacted a small part of a trek that people in what is today the SouthwestUnited States may have made more than 1,000 years ago. The ancient Anasazi built Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, but now the area is stalked by shape-shifting creatures and visited by time travelers who left behind a mysterious artifact. For decades, people have wondered how ancient ancestral Puebloans transported heavy building materials to Chaco Canyon, one of the most important archaeological sites in the Southwest. Thousands of people, the ancestors of todays Din, or Navajo,and Pueblo peoples, may have lived there from around A.D. 850 to 1200. They describe the deliberate action of their ancestors to seal off the buildings and these aspects of their past. Colorado Sun. That astonishment was Krams entry point into the mystery. WIRED Media Group This region was historically occupied by Ancestral Puebloan people (better known as Anasazi) and is now part of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. 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. "As these guys showed, you don't have to be super trained to carry a log," he said. They recall the brilliant knowledge of the ancestors that gave them control over natural forces, but suggest also the corrupting effect of such power. This newly conceived series (in progress) will bring recent revelations about the ancient Native Americans who built massive enigmatic structures throughout the southwest. Summaries America's Stonehenge? For general inquiries, please use our contact form. 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. The teaching materials in the Guide are designed to be used with the film THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON. 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. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. 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. 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. Directors The irritation paid off. minimum distance between toilet and shower. More information: 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. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. A new explanation of the mystery is emerging. This small calendar allowed for those living at Chaco Canyon to determine the beginning . Published work includes a variety of proposals including horizon calendars, solar calendrical constructs in architecture, cardinal North-South and/or East-West (NS/EW) alignments of architecture and roads, building alignments to lunar standstills or June solstice sunrise, wall alignments to equinox sunrise or sunset, and the positioning of structures at observation points for horizon calendrical stations. 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. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, That cant add up to 275 kilograms.. 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. James A. Wilson et al, Were timbers transported to Chaco using tumplines? Thus specific cultural systems including cosmovisions emerged, which allowed man to establish and maintain order and rhythm in personal and social life, interacting with given environmental conditions and to answer the human questions about the whys and wherefores concerning him and the world. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is valuable, respectful, and decent. Its just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.. 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. Many scientists have hypothesized about how the Chacoans might have accomplished this feat. For more information, contact Bullfrog Films, Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 1-800-543-FROG (3764); info@. "The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. 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. 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. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. The team's findings show that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. part may be reproduced without the written permission. Archaeologist Bill Lipe thinks religion was a . The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . 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). The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon was once the center of the most influential culture in the American Southwest. After three months of training with tumplines for six or seven days a week, Kram and Wilson were ready to try a real log. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder). Ancient Desert Mystery Did Thousands Vanish Without A Trace Because Of An Ominous Prophecy And Revenge? And they decided to test whether the journey was possible themselves. That means my focus is building relationships and telling stories from under-covered pockets of Colorado. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex . The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. 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. Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is one of those extraordinary gems and an excellent example of ArchaeoAstronomy. 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. "These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.". 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. It fits with all the evidence: they used tumplines, they made the roads very wide, Kram said. In 1977 Sofaer visited Chaco Canyon as a volunteer recording ancient Southwestern American rock art. "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. The irritation paid off. Copyright 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), all rights reserved. Kiva: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History, Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica, Astronomy and Cultural Diversity. A potential calendrical station located in the vicinity of Peasco Blancos McElmo ruin is yet to be confirmed. 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). 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. The duo and their colleagues described their experiment Feb. 22 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. It is the summation of 20 years of research. "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.". Human porters would have needed to carry 16-foot-long wooden beamsto Chaco Canyon by footfollowing a network of ancient roads to sites like the Chuska Mountains to the west. These cosmographic concepts of habitation across cultures are transformed into designed landscapes, cultic caves, tents, campsites, houses, cities, or temples. 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. "Maybe the best way is to do it yourself.. The average logs that were carried to build these great houses at Chaco were about 16 feet long, so I multiplied it by 16, he said. The astronomical evidence presented supports the idea that people with at least three distinct cosmological intents collaborated at Chaco; it also supports Van Dykes hypothesis that Late Bonito phase construction at Chaco represented an attempt by a weakened ritual elite to reinvigorate their legitimacy and power. The Mysterious Books Of Prophecies Of The Knights Templar Where Are They Hidden? But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. Riddle Of The Ancient Sarcophagus And Its Strange Properties Can Science Solve This Mystery? 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. Explore how the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their archMoreMore, 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. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. That astonished CU Boulder Integrative Physiology Professor Rodger Kram. 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. Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. Most of the putative lunar standstill and June solstice sunrise alignments comprise a subset of this SSE facing group. That's five miles round trip.. of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. Peter Whiteley, Chair, Dept. Archaeological and ethnological records worldwide give evidence that, since Palaeolithic time, cosmovisions were an essential part of mans requirement to organize habitats. What is known is that beginning around the mid-800s, Chaco people began building here, creating multi-story stone buildings on a grand scale. 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. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. Without permission or understanding. Gazing at the horizon: heavenly phenomena and cultural preferences within northwest Scotland? To make sure they were being safe, Kram and Wilson started with light loads and worked their way up, said Joseph Carzoli, a study co-author and certified strength and conditioning coach. 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. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. It is located in the region known as the Four Corners, where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. 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. A study finds that those on the CU Boulder and Colorado State University campuses showed high levels of mask use and positive attitudes about masks during pandemic. They first tried carrying a log on their shoulders. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. That photograph influenced many of the proposed mechanisms for transporting the logs. The study found that about 1 in 6 adult deaths in the U.S. are related to excess weight or obesity. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. Seventy miles from the nearest town and accessible only by washboard dirt roads, it's remote by today's standards. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no They estimated that a 16-foot-long pine log weighed closer to 85 kilograms, or just over 185 pounds. The astonishing discovery of an ancient celestial calendar in Chaco Canyon,, Tells the story of three indigenous communities and the land they struggle, An in-depth portrait of Edward S. Curtis, the preeminent photographer, 2023 Docuseek, LLCAll rights reserved | Privacy Statement | Accessibility Statement, astronomy, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico,; cosmology, Pueblo Bonito,; Robert Redford, architecture, solstice, sun, moon, petroglyphs, native americans, sun dagger, lunar cycle, equinox, celestial calendar, archaeology, Anasazi, Hopi, archaeology, art history, architecture,"The Mystery of Chaco Canyon",Bullfrog Films,doc; history; science; religion. The most uncomfortable part, Wilson noted, was the strap of the tumpline rubbing into his head. The study was published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Written byJan Bartek AncientPages.comStaff Writer, Runes Were Just As Advanced As Roman Alphabet Writing New Study, Ancient Burials Of Worlds First Horse Riders Found Near The Black Sea, Clevelands Prehistoric Sea Monster Had A Mouth Twice As Large As A Great White Shark, Mysterious Bronze Age Golden Tomb Unearthed In Armenia. Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. It was just debilitating, Kram said. Airs Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV. 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. These and other bizarre encounters suggest the park may be a portal between our world and distant star system. Chaco is also an enduring enigma for researchers. Two hours later a rock chimney allows a narrow beam of sunlight to pass through, forming a Sun Dagger that illuminates the petroglyphs beneath it in a dynamic manner, similar to the solar marker located upon Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon. "It was just debilitating," Kram said. America's Stonehenge?America's Stonehenge?America's Stonehenge? 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. 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." They used a log that weighed 132 pound. When a load is positioned at the top of the head, the spine supports the weight and it doesnt fatigue muscles. Then the researchers hit on the idea of tumplines, which are depicted in ceramic effigies recovered from close to Chaco Canyon. Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. Shining light on the astronomical brilliance of the austere civilization of Chaco Canyon Narrated by Robert Redford . 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. 56 minutes, color. Wilson and Kram rest their log on supports called "tokmas." June 12, 2022 . This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. It was a long, hard day.. To construct these great houses, archaeologists have estimated that the Chacoans would have needed wood from some 200,000 trees, and those 16-foot-long wooden beams must have been transported from mountain ranges as far as 70 miles (110 km) away. Speaker: Anna Sofaer and her colleagues Robert Weiner and Richard Friedman. What Does The Brain Of The Homo Erectus Fossil With The Lowest Cranial Capacity Tell About Evolution? 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. "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.". You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103876, Provided by 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. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. We calculate that probably each of the big timbers took three people and took them about four days to get from where the trees were cut down to where they were used for the construction site, Kram said. Jen has worked at KPBS since 2000. 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). - Feb 24, 2023 9:00 pm UTC. 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. Ancient Chaco. 22K views 1 year ago 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. 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. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. He and Wilson weren't trying to start a new exercise fad. It seemed unrealistically high to him. In a remote canyon in northwestern New Mexico sits one of America's greatest historical treasures and one of the Southwest's greatest mysteries. For years, archaeologists believed that the 16-foot-long timbers transported long distances to Chaco Canyon weighed about 600 pounds. One such road, the Great North Road, connects the central canyons ceremonial buildings across 35 miles of desert to a steep badlands canyon in the North a direction of profound significance to descendant Pueblo people. 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. Aerial and time-lapse footage, computer modeling, and interviews with scholars unveil how the Chaco culture designed, located, and oriented their major buildings and roads in relationship to the sun and moon. In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, edited by Bruno David and Julian Thomas, pp. "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.". "The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. We chose a forest road up here in the foothills and outside of Nederland and we walked up and down this darn road. 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. Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian, Ex-Curator of Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. Chaco Canyon is a shallow, ten-mile canyon situated in the northwest corner of New Mexico. Since its release in 2000, our award-winning film, that our award-winning film, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is now, the DVD of our full-length documentary on, US Release Date: 1999; Copyright Date: 1999, Silver Plaque, The Chicago International Television Competition, Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival, Honorable Mention, The Archaeology Channel International Film & Video Festival, American Museum of Natural History, New York, National Museum of National History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. 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. 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. A feasibility study, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2023). For more information, contact Bullfrog Films, Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 1-800-543-FROG . "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. Your feedback is important to us. Ever since she . 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. famous site in the Southwest called Chaco Canyon, Majority of students masked up amid early COVID days, Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed, Tend to get sick when the air is dry? Could more local solutions work. You can convince people if you show that something is actually feasible," Kram said. 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.. 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. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. 167-175. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. The Wall Street Journal'A beautiful piece. Existing customers, please log in to view this film. Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder. 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.
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