Great Sites: Weatherill Mesa

Mesa Verde National Park

 

Weatherill Mesa is remote and, therefore much less visited than the rest of the sites at Mesa Verde National Park.  But it is a real treasure to visit. 

Long House at Weatherill Mesa
Mesa Verde National Park

 

There are three main attractions, 1) the Ranger guided tour of Long House, 2) the Loop facilitated by the tram, and 3) the hike to the Step House site.

The Ranger guided tour of Long House is a must.  This site was unique for a cliff dwelling because of its large open-air plaza fashioned after a large kiva and the natural seep spring.  

 

 

 

 

The tour begins with a short ride on the tram to a covered area with picnic tables.  You follow the Ranger down a steep switch-back trail to the site.

 

At first, Long House doesn’t look like much, but you soon learn that there are a lot of very interesting and unique features.

 

A ladder takes you up into the upper level where the Ranger points out an area where they ground their stone axes on the sandstone.

 

 

 

 

There are also imprints of corn cobs in the plaster—maybe made by kids playing because further down are hand prints on the walls made by small children. 

 

 

Some commented that it reminded them of a day-care facility.

 

 

 

Up in this balcony area you see one of the features that I find fascinating—a seep spring.  Rain and snow melt seeps through the porous sandstone that makes up the alcove.  When it hits the slate layer, it seeps out into the alcove providing a natural source for water right in the dwelling.

 

 

 

 

Looking down on the plaza you can see another fascinating and unique feature of Long House—the open-air plaza.  It looks like a grand kiva with the walls and roof missing.  Here is a partial transcript of Ranger Sam's eloquent description of how the plaza was used. [video of presentation]

 

"For 700 years  after the Ancestral Puebloans left Long House, this is all [there was to] Long House [peaceful and quiet].

"But back in the day, when the Ancestral Puebloans lived here, this place would have been alive with the sound of people, with the sound of the community—songs, dancing, singing, laughter, especially this place where we are standing right now.  We call this place, this courtyard, the Great Plaza  or the Great Kiva.

"I like to imagine that over this [rectangular rock-lined] opening here and this [rectangular rock-lined] opening here,  they have stretched skins of deer skins or elk hides. And this is a drum, and they are beating drums and making music.  

"And over here [this big square pit] is a fire pit and they have a big fire going and they are singing and dancing around that communal life force, the fire.

"Over here [behind the fire pit] we have another interesting little hole in the ground and this is what is called a Sipapu, and “sipapu” means place of immergence.   And this little hole, or square I should say, represents where these people believe that their Mother, the Earth, had given birth to them up to the surface to meet their father, the sky, and this Sipapu is where they believed their spirit would go back into the earth when they died.

"And over here we have more drums.  There are people laughing, singing and dancing.   This place is alive with the sounds of the community.  And what is so great about this story is that although that sound, that laughter, that talking may not be here in Long House today, it is still going on.  So what happened to these people, where did the Ancestral Puebloans go?

"Well they were dry land farmers, right?  So they depended upon the rain for water for their crops.  So, what happens when it stops raining?  Their crops failed and you can’t eat.  And that’s what happened to these people in 1280, a drought struck this region that lasted almost 30 years.  They couldn’t eat and they couldn’t make do, so they had to put art and architecture aside and renew."

[They abandoned the cliffs and moved south to start over.]

 

 

After the Long House tour, you can catch the tram for a Loop trail around the mesa.  The Loop was fun.  There are nicely preserved pithouses protected by metal buildings.  The tram lets you out at the paved trail-head and then picks you up at the end of the trail.  There are some parts of the tram ride where the driver waits for you to look at cliff dwellings from the rim.

 

 

Then there is the hike to Step House.  Unfortunately, we got rained out of our hike to this unique site.  I really wanted to see this site because there is a reconstructed pithouse, a large concentration of rock art, and the ruins of two separate occupations side-by-side. 

 

I will be going back to Mesa Verde National Park and you should visit it, too.  This is archaeology at its most elegant and beautiful.  It is probably the last site of the Ancestral Pueblo Culture, the culture that was part of the Chaco Phenomenon that lasted for over 500 years.  It was a culture that rose to great heights in art, architecture, government, and social life.  There is every reason to believe that the people were happy, healthy, and prosperous.  It was a good life with little signs of war or conflict.  Their's was a culture to be admired, studied and learned from.

 

by Courtney Miller

 

My book, The First Raven Mocker, has just been released. 

 

 

See what the Cherokee were like in mythological times.

 

Check it out at:

 

 www.CourtneyMillerAuthor.com

Great Sites: The Secret Passages of Coyote Village

Great Sites: Mesa Verde National Park

This week I want to talk about one of the unique features of the Mesa Verdeans that fascinates me—mysterious doors and passages!  Early in the history of these remote people they built narrow (2-foot by 3-foot) doors to tunnels that connect a room to a kiva or a tower.   I haven’t seen that anywhere else.   But at Mesa Verde it is quite common.  That is one thing that makes the small, unassuming ruins at “Far View Sites” so interesting to me.  This site sits on top of the “mesa” not far from the Far View Lodge in the center of the park.  The area was populated between 900 and 1300 A.D.--fairly early in the timeline—and was a farming community.   It is called “Far View” because of its stunning views of the countryside, canyons, and surrounding mountains.

The most elaborate example of tunnels lies in Coyote Village, one of the ruins featured on the Far View Site trail loop.  Next week I will talk more about the loop, but this week I want to concentrate on the mysterious passages of this site.

Coyote Village has 30 ground floor rooms (the upper floor(s) are gone now), five kivas and a watch

tower.  Three of the kivas, the tower, and a room are all linked by tunnels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[view video]  Starting with the kiva in the center of the plaza, it looks like a typical kiva with ventilator chamber, stone deflector, (back fill covers the fire pit and sipapu), stone pilasters … but then there is a curious door in one of the bench-like banquettes with a tunnel that leads under the plaza to the kiva next to it.

That kiva not only has the door from the central kiva but another door mounted in the corner of the chamber fronting the ventilator shaft that tunnels to the watch tower.  The most common connection at Mesa Verde is from a kiva to a watch tower.

When entering the watch tower from the plaza, one would have to be careful not to step into the hole in the floor  just inside the door and fall into the tunnel exit from the kiva.

Not only did the kiva connect to the tower, it had a third tunnel that connected to a room and another kiva in the corner of the village. 

The third kiva in the link had a door to a passage to a rectangular room.   Oddly,  there is no sign of the tunnel  from the central kiva inside the kiva suggesting the tunnel went to the room.

But, an inspection of the rectangular room only turns up a drop down into the tunnel to the third kiva.  I suspect that the tunnel from the central kiva comes up between the third kiva and the room.
[end of video]

 

I don’t know why I find these passages so intriguing.  Perhaps it’s that childhood fascination with sneaking around in tunnels and secret passages.  I’m sure there is a very practical explanation for them other than sneaking around.  It gets pretty cold on these high mesas in the winter.  Perhaps this was just a way to move around without having to go outside.  But, if that is the answer, I wonder why all of the rooms weren’t connected this way.

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

Great Sites: Spruce Tree House

Part 2: Mesa Verde National Park

Of all of the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) sites, Mesa Verde National Park is the largest, most dazzling, and affords the greatest access of all.  The contrast between Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon is like night and day.  Chaco Canyon is quiet, mystical, and uncrowded.  Mesa Verde is bustling, noisy, and glamorous.  But, it is SO worth the visit.  There is nothing as beautiful as seeing the magnificent Chaco-style architecture showcased in a majestic sandstone alcove nestled in the side of a daunting canyon.  And at Mesa Verde, you can see the “palaces” from many different angles, experience them with a ranger guided tour, or walk leisurely through them on a self-guided tour with a ranger always nearby for questions.



Chapin Mesa Archeology Museum

The first place I usually visit in the park is the visitor center where I can get information on tours, maps, and purchase trail guides.  I also purchase tickets for special ranger guided tours.  There is also a very nice book and gift shop.  Then it is off to the park on a winding road that affords very scenic views of the canyons and occasional breath-taking panoramas of the surrounding valleys.

The next stop for me, and most visitors, is the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum 22 miles from the visitor center and deep in the heart of the many beautiful ruins.  If you can only spend one day in the park, this is your best course of action.  Learn about the remarkable people that lived on the mesa and in the canyon alcoves 800 years ago by touring the great exhibits and watching the park video in the museum.

[view video] For a spectacular view of Spruce Tree House, walk only a few steps from the Chapin

Mesa Archaeological Museum to the canyon rim.  You are free to walk at your own pace down the paved switch-back trail that leads directly into the ruin.  You are on your own to explore the well-preserved great house nestled in a beautiful sandstone alcove with rangers standing by for questions.

[view video] On the path to Spruce Tree House, you pass a spring that was used by its residents.  The geology that creates this spring also created the alcove that the house was built in.  The tan cliffs in the canyons are composed of sandstone which is very porous.  Rain, snow melt and running water seep through the sandstone down to the layer of shale underneath where it emerges as a spring.  Often in winter the water collects in cracks in the sandstone, freezes and breaks off chunks until the alcove is formed.

[view video] Manos sitting on mutates in a small room prompt me to imagine what life was like in these great houses.   Most daily chores were done outside on the plazas in the summer and moved inside in the winter. 

The mud plaster coating still clings to some of the walls that were three or four stories high in some areas.  Many rooms were used to store corn, squash, and beans harvested on the mesas above.  Some doors were “T”-shaped making them handy for carrying armloads into the rooms.  The soot on the walls and ceilings suggest that fires were used inside many of the rooms and some say burned constantly in the rear areas.  Remnants of porches and balconies remain.  There were about 114 rooms here and the average size was 6x8x5 ½ feet.  The average height of a male resident was around 5 feet 4 inches.

There were eight kivas used by kinship groups for ceremonial and communal activities.  A lot of what we know about the kivas comes from descendants of these Ancestral Pueblo people living today and still using kivas.  Unlike the living rooms, kivas were well-designed for using fire and well-ventilated.

 

[view video] Near the center of this great house is a corridor very similar to a main street connecting the front plaza to the back. I don’t think I have seen this before in a great house.  There is also a large circular room that is built like towers found on the mesas above the canyons.  However, it was more likely a storage room than a watch tower.  This tower over looks a typical kiva built under the plaza.

 Stone Pilasters supported log beams that held up the roof using cribbed construction.  A large pit in the center of the floor contained the fire.  Fresh air was drawn in through the ventilator shaft and dispersed by a stone deflector shield.   The small hole in the floor behind the firepit is a “Sipapu” which represents the opening through which man emerged onto the face of the earth.

Smoke from the fire exited through a square hole in the roof which also served as the entrance and exit by ladder.   The banquets look like benches but were more likely used to store ceremonial objects.    There were also small caches built into the walls for special storage.

A special treat is in store for you at Spruce Tree House.  There is a fully restored kiva complete with roof that you are allowed to climb down into and experience.  I was surprised by how roomy it felt and how much natural light made its way inside.

[view video] Another bonus is a sample of how the walls may have been decorated still preserved in the fading plaster.  This design was painted on the wall 800 years ago.

Spruce Tree House is a great introduction to the beautiful Cliff Dwellings in Mesa Verde.

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

 

Great Sites: Bandelier National Monument Part 2: Mini Tour

As I mentioned in last week’s article, Bandelier National Monument is one of my favorite sites partly because of the diversity of dwellings and building techniques used by the ancient residents.  When you leave the visitor center, you start down a lovely, wooded path surrounded by the high canyon walls of Frijoles Canyon.  We are going to take the trail known as the Canyon Loop.  At this point,  there is no clue for what you are about to see.

 

 

[video] I had to stop and admire the tall canyon walls.  The tuff volcanic rock is soft and pock-marked with hundreds of eroded “cavates” (cavities).  It is so peaceful with only birds singing, people talking softly in the distance (and an occasional horn honking in the visitor parking lot).

 

Walking further, I was distracted by the funny looking Abert’s squirrel jumping from tree to tree when I first noticed the great kiva resting quietly among the pinons not far from the stream.  Although not as large and imposing as those at Chaco Canyon or Aztec Ruins, it has the typical features of a great kiva—the vent in the south wall; shield in front of the north entrance; a couple of floor chambers resembling possible foot drums; fire pit; and bench built into the circular walls.  Portions of the Timbers that once held up the flat roof remain in place.

 

Then as we continue down the path distracted by the tall cane cholla cactus with their brilliant hot pink flowers,  the great house, called Tyuonyi (Qu-weh-nee),  appears spread across the clearing.  It appears that only the base of the lower floor still exists of what was originally a two-story structure with over 400 rooms. 

[video] After entering through the narrow opening from the south, I pause to admire an old mano stone resting on a metate.  I can imagine groups of women sitting there grinding corn and talking, laughing, and singing as they worked.  Beyond the plaza of the great house Tyuonyi the remains of the talus houses that were once built next to the canyon in front of the cavates can be seen.  The representative of the cavate, the subterranean kiva, rests quietly in the plaza.

 

[video] As early as 10,000 years ago, nomadic hunters followed game into this canyon and camped in the naturally formed cavates.  The soft volcanic rock pock-marked by millions of years of erosion provided perfect caves where hunters and their families could find shelter.  Around 1150, the Ancestral Pueblo People moved into the canyon and planted corn, beans, and squash and added permanent stone houses to the front of the cavates.

[video] Some of the cavates are quite large.  In many, the floors were leveled and plastered over.  The natural doorways were often reduced and squared with stone and mortar.  The walls were often plastered over and painted after being smoothed and hollowed out.  The soot-covered ceilings testify to the use of fires inside the cavate.  These fires were sometimes placed near vents chiseled into the wall near the door.

 

 [video] Along the face of the canyon wall you can see the remnants of what is today known as the “Long House”.  Originally the Long House was three to four stories high.  The holes where the ceiling timbers were imbedded still remain.  The cavates that continued to be utilized in the back of the rooms still have signs of the paint that was on their walls.

[video]  Typically the rooms in the Long House were built two-deep from the walls and three high along the back.   Note the many smaller holes in the face.  Too small to be for vigas to hold up a ceiling, they were probably for a covered porch.  Petroglyphs are chiseled into the canyon face above the top floors.  Maybe children or adults would sit atop the building and doodle while they rested. 

 
There are 13 groups of talus villages in the Frijoles canyon,  the largest being Hewett's Group D, which has approximately 216 first story rooms. It appears to have been the more accessible of the cliff homes when compared to other cliff sites in the Canyon. The cliff wall still has the viga holes in it delineating a continuous group of houses from one to four stories in height extending along the cliff for 700 feet.

[video]  It was a natural progression for the agrarian occupants to eventually build a great house

down in the valley.  The talus houses may have remained the primary residences with the great house providing a community center and storage facility.  Traders may have stayed in the great house when they came to exchange goods.

 

Once you come back down into the valley and cross the creek along the Main Loop Trail, there is a trail branching off  to “The Alcove House”.  It is a nice, cool walk along the stream for about a half mile (one way).   [video] Formerly known as Ceremonial Cave, Alcove House is located 140 feet above the canyon floor and requires you to climb 4 wooden ladders and a number of stone stairs to reach the site.  In Alcove House, there is a reconstructed kiva and the viga holes and niches of former homes where about 25 people could have lived.   It reminds me of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colorado, on a much smaller scale.  Right after our visit, Alcove House was closed so that reconstruction work could be done on the kiva. 

It would have provided residents with a panoramic view and safety, but what a climb to have to make every day!

 

 

 

After the tour, it is great to sit at one of the streamside tables and have a nice, relaxing picnic while you watch the birds and squirrels play and listen to the soothing sound of the babbling stream.  You should put this site in your plans.

-- Courtney Miller

 

 

Great Sites: Bandelier National Monument, Part 1: The Monument

Courtney and Lin Miller
at
Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier National Monument is one of my favorite sites to visit.  Not because of the quality of the ruins but because of the diversity of construction by the ancient inhabitants and the beauty of the setting.  It is also convenient from Santa Fe, New Mexico, a fun place to stay.  The Monument is about an hour’s drive from Santa Fe and is nestled in the southern end of the Pajarito Plateau:

1. --Take Saint Francis Drive (HWY 84/285) north toward Los Alamos.
2. --After passing Pojoaque, merge right onto New Mexico 502 to Los Alamos.
3. --Continue up 502 toward Los Alamos. Bear right and exit onto New Mexico 4 towards White Rock. Continue for 12 miles, passing White Rock.

Note: from May 24th through mid October, the Atomic City Transit offers bus service from White Rock visitor center to Bandelier.

 

 

The visitor center hours are 9 AM - 430 PM daily, year-round, except for December 25 and JanuaryCheck the website for special rates.

1.   It only costs $12 for a 7-day vehicle permit, $6 single entry, and both Senior and National Parks Pass are accepted. 

There are a lot of activities available besides the ruins including hiking, cross-country skiing, bird watching, and camping.  But, of course, the ruins are the focus of my interest.

When you first enter Bandelier National Monument, there is a pullout featuring a scenic overlook [see video].  Down in the center of the canyon, a small creek flows year-round nourishing the trees and vegetation which help make parts of the walk through the ruins shady and pleasant.  If you look closely, you can see the visitor center and the area where the ruins reside.

[video] As you drive down into the canyon you can see Cerro Grande peak to the north rising to 10,199 feet.  The canyon sits at 5,340 feet, almost a mile lower.  The Pajarito Plateau is the result of two volcanic eruptions 1.6 and 1.4 million years ago.  This elevation difference creates a unique diversity of habitats specific to Northern New Mexico. The diversity of habitats and quick access to water supported a relatively large population of Ancestral Pueblo people.

As you approach the visitor center you are greeted by a row of residences exhibiting that unique southwestern architecture so common around Santa Fe.  They were built between 1925 and 1941 when Evelyn Frey and her husband, George, took over and built the visitor center, the lodge, the road into Frijoles canyon and miles for trails.  At one point, Manhattan Project scientists and military personnel were housed here.  The visitor center hosts a museum, a documentary film, and a nice gift shop.

 

There are seasonal restrictions as well as advantages.  For instance, in the summer access is by shuttle only.  In the winter, you can expect snow and restricted access to some trails.  But all seasons are beautiful in their own way and Bandelier National Monument should be on your list of “sites” to see.

 

 

 

 

Next week we'll take a mini tour of Bandelier National Monument.

 

 

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

  

Great Sites: Aztec Ruins National Monument: Mini Tour

What is there to see at Aztec ruins?  Aztec Ruins National Monument is a small place, but has a big offering.   The restored great kiva is worth the visit by itself but there are also well preserved rooms with the ceilings intact, great examples of fine Chaco-style architecture, and it is easily accessible.  Let me give you a sample with this mini tour [Note: this week you have the option of watching a video with each section]:

[video] The great house, Aztec West, is only a few steps from the visitor center.  In the 1100’s it was a three-story building with over 500 rooms and many kivas including the restored great kiva in the plaza.  Right away you come face-to-face with the west wall where the significance of unique green rows of greywacke stone hauled from nearby quarries is a mystery.  We can only guess at reasons for the inclusion by the original masons. 

[video] As you follow the trail along the west wall  [of the Aztec West great house] you can peer into some of the outer rooms.  Most of the rooms were for storage, some were burial chambers, and one has a vented chamber suggesting it may have been a residence.

[video] We are now inside the great house at Aztec Ruins where the visitor trail allows us to explore

the rooms along the back wall.  Many of the ceilings are original construction that has survived the ages.  This One room was a burial chamber with over a dozen bodies found wrapped in shrouds of feathers or cotton cloth and rush matting and accompanied by offerings of pottery, jewelry, clothing and other items.  Many of the rooms were burial chambers with one or sometimes many corpses.  Other rooms were for storage and some contained trash heaps. 

[video] Two rooms in the Aztec Ruins Great House are very interesting.  One room once contained a door, but then the room was sealed off.  Perhaps it was a burial chamber or was filled with trash and access was no longer needed.

Next to the sealed off room is a square room that has many of the characteristics of a kiva including benches around the outside and a vent chamber on the south side.  All kivas were built inside a square room, but this one is missing the characteristic enclosed, round walls.  Maybe it was just too small.

[video] T-shaped doors became common in Chaco-style great houses after being introduced by the Mesa Verde outliers.   They look strange but had an exquisitely practical function.

They were built this way so that occupants carrying a load from the plaza with their arms full could easily enter the room.

 

[video] In one of the two great kivas in the plaza at Aztec Ruins, The timbers resting atop one another demonstrate the lower part of a domed, cribbed roof.  A cribbed roof uses many more large timbers than a flat, horizontal roof so archaeologists  believe that Chacoan kivas with domed roofs were used less often.   The restored great kiva across the plaza demonstrates the more traditional flat roof.

[Video] The reconstructed great kiva is what Aztec Ruins is most famous for.  

After Earl Morris excavated the great kiva in 1921, exposure took its tole and it weathered away.   So, the park service decided that rather than bury what was left, they would bring Mr. Morris back to consult on the reconstruction.  Everything in the reconstruction is based upon evidence Morris had found in his excavation.

The huge room could have held hundreds of people.  A smaller room may have hidden the performers while people entered.  The main room had a square floor vault where the sacred fire greeted guests entering from the south.  Two large, rectangular foot drums would have echoed loudly as dancers stomped on would covers. 

[Video] The main room of the great kiva was built to facilitate impressive productions.  Sacred fires crackled from the square hearth.   Foot drums of different sizes produced different sounds as the dancers stomped on them.  The four sandstone discs originally supported each of the four pillars to keep them from settling under the weight of the massive roof.  Small rooms encircled the main room with ladder access.  Perhaps to enable dancers to flood dramatically into the room?

[Video] Encircling the main room of the great kiva at Aztec are small antechambers.  Someone could descend into the room by using the ladder built in to the wall.  The room also had a door to the outside.

 

By the late 1200's, the Ancestral Pueblo culture in Aztec like the other Chacoan great houses gave up on this site and abandoned it.  The people moved south and established new pueblos as the Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo cultures of today.

-- Courtney Miller


Want more?  Watch this five-part video tour by Ranger Tracy Bodnar

The Sangre de Cristo Solar Calendar

My house sits on a round hill in the foothills of the Wet Mountains.   This hill is the last vestige of the Wet Mountains and looks out over the Wet Mountain valley.  Across the long, narrow valley, the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise up with many peaks topping 14,000 feet.  The Sangre de Cristo is the longest, continuous mountain range in the Rocky Mountains and stretches from the Arkansas River to the north down to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the south.

Summer Solstice
Equinox sets between 2nd and 3rd peak from left

If I had lived on this spot 1,000 years ago, The Wet Mountains to my east and Sangre de Cristos to the west would have provided me the most perfect solar calendar to track my days, months, and seasons.  All I would have to do is note where the sun rises and where it sets each day for a year and then I would be able to predict the longest day of the year (first day of summer), the shortest day of the year (first day of winter) and the day when night and day are equal (first day of spring and first day of autumn).  Why would I care?  Because planting at the right time is critical.  Knowing when winter is coming is critical. 

Sunset the day before my father's birthday

Every year for Christmas, my sister creates a calendar for me on her computer that notes everyone’s birthday and the holidays.  That calendar sits on my desk and I use it to remember birthdays, plan vacations, observe the holidays, etc.  What would I do without my calendar?  Well, 1,000 years ago, the rising and setting sun would have been my calendar.   Over time, I would come to know that when the sun sets between Crestone Needles and Crestone Peak, it is September 20th, the vernal equinox, the beginning of Autumn.   And when the sun sets in the saddle of Marble Mountain, I had better send my sister a birthday card!

Winter Solstice
Equinox would set on mountain above the "6"

I would know that as the sun continuously set further and further south, the days would grow shorter and shorter and it would get progressively colder.  My greatest fear might be that it would never stop traveling south and one day there would be no more days, just night!  So, around December 20th when the sun sets in the same spot for several days in a row and then starts travelling back to the north, that would be a most significant time and I would want to celebrate – Christmas maybe?

Today, I can take a picture of the sunset and my digital camera will imprint the date down in the bottom right corner of the picture.  Then next year, when the sun sets there again, I can take out my picture and say, “Today is ________”!  The picture to the right is sunrise near the Equinox, note how the shadow points to the spot where the sun will set that evening. 

Well, pre-historic Native Americans (all ancient cultures, for that matter) didn’t have digital cameras so they had to come up with their own methods for remembering the days and following their calendars.  The Plains Indians, for instance, created medicine wheels (see below) that enabled them to line up the sun in alignment with stones they had placed the year(s) before.  The Anasazi built great stone buildings with significant alignments.  At Casa Rincanada, a giant Anasazi kiva, on the equinox, the sun would shine through a small window on the east side of the kiva and light up a small, square cache in the west wall.  At Stonehenge, on the summer solstice, the sun would shine through two pillars and illuminate an alter in the center of the circle of stones.

For as long as man has had the intelligence to watch the sun and stars, he has used this information to help him plan his days.  And, as we know, man is a most creative and imaginative being.  I think this is why I enjoy “Archaeoastronomy”, the study of how the ancients used astronomy, so much and why so many articles in Native American Antiquity are devoted to this subject.  

Well, gotta go, the sun is about to rise and I need to run grab a picture of it!
 

 -- Courtney Miller

Archaeoastronomy -- Fajada Butte -- Sun Daggers

First of all, what is archaeoastronomy?  It is the study of how the ancients studied or used astronomy.   The position of the stars in the night sky; the movement of the sun across the horizon throughout the year; the movement of the Moon across the horizon on its eighteen-nineteen year cycle; were all studied and recorded and used by the ancients as their celestial calendar.   Knowledge of these cycles helped the ancients to know when to plant their crops, or migrate, celebrate their religious holidays, and many other important events during the year.

In the heart of New Mexico there is an arid canyon called Chaco Canyon that was once the center of the Anasazi culture.  In this canyon stands an ominous butte called Fajada (fa-ha-da) Butte.  Atop this huge 450 ft-high formation are three large sandstone slabs that lean up against the southern wall.  On the wall behind these huge stones, the Anasazi astronomers chiseled two large spirals.   At noon every day the sun shines between the stones and casts shaft(s) of light across the spirals.  Popularly called “daggers of light”, the dagger materialize before noon in the upper left of the spiral and then spread across the spiral to project a “dagger” covering the spiral and then clears off the spiral top to bottom.   It is an amazing, almost magical occurrence.

Click for video of Sun Dagger

The Sun Dagger phenomenon was first noticed by artist Anna Sofaer in 1977 when she was a volunteer recording the petroglyphs on Fajada Butte.  On her first visit, she noted the three stone slabs leaning against the cliff in front of two spiral petroglyphs on the cliff wall.  On her second visit, she happened to be at the site around 11 a.m. and witnessed the dagger of light bisecting one of the spirals.  An amazing stroke of luck since the dagger only appears for about 18 minutes each day.  Realizing that the summer solstice was imminent, she correctly recognized the site as an important archaeoastronomical site.

The following year,  she founded the “Solstice Project” to focus on the study, documentation and preservation of the Sun Dagger site.   Her team learned that for the spring equinox, two daggers appear.  A smaller dagger bisects a smaller spiral through its center, whereas the larger dagger pierces the larger spiral off center.  For the summer solstice, the larger spiral is bisected by a larger dagger through its center.  The autumn equinox is the same as the spring equinox.  Then for the winter solstice, two large daggers embrace the sides of the larger spiral like bookends.  Even more remarkable, it was observed that the 19 segments of the larger spiral marked the 19 year movement of the moon from minimum to maximum across the horizon.

At the Archaeoastronomical Symposium at Queen’s College, September, 1981, Anna Sofaer submitted a paper on her work .  It was the conclusion of the symposium that the Sundagger Site is the only known site in the world where both the solar and lunar extremes are marked.

 

 

For over one thousand years, the stone slabs produced a dagger of light to mark the solar extremes and marked the lunar shadow marching through its 19 year extremes.  Its rediscovery  generated so much interest that the many visitors eager to observe the site first-hand tramped down the soil next to the slabs prompting the site to be restricted and not even the park staff are allowed to visit the Sun Dagger site today.   Unfortunately, the damage was fatal and caused the slabs to shift.  As a result, the slabs no longer produce the daggers of light as they once did.  The restriction was placed too late to save it.

-- Courtney Miller

 

Watch video of the Sun Dagger Explorer exhibit at New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Inconvenient Arrogance, Part 6 – The Collapse of the Chaco Phenomenon

Great Kiva - Pueblo Bonito

“It is not hard to imagine one of these ancient villages—the adults going about their tasks, the children playing or learning at their side.  We can almost smell the rabbit stew cooking in the earthen pot and the aroma of corn roasting over the coals of the cookfire;  we can almost see the freshmade paper-thin piki bread—all this in anticipation of the day’s-endmeal after the men have returned from attending to the fields or building a new village structure.” – Kendrick Frazier, “People of Chaco”.



Life among the Anasazi was hard but they were a rugged and industrious people who by the twelfth century had created great stone houses and temples and created governments that organized and distributed their commodities and coordinated trade.  Although the most prominent and powerful, the Chaco culture was not alone in the Southwest.  In Arizona, the Hohokam society built smaller stone houses and made extensive use of canals for farming.   East of the Hohokam, the Mogollon society had a similar culture.  In between Chaco and Hohokam and Mogollon, a hybrid society that borrowed canal technology  from the hohokum and architecture from Chaco were called the Mimbres.  During the classic period, trade was pervasive among these different cultures.



Penaco Blanco -- Chaco Canyon
Road that defines Chaco Meridian

So, what happened to Chaco Canyon?  Why was it vacated by A.D. 1170?  Evidence shows that climate change resulting in long periods of drought is at the root of the cause.  Long before, Chaco Canyon had become over populated and unable to sustain itself without the aid of the outliers.  The luxury of being the central storehouse for the region and in control of distribution allowed them to skim off the extra they needed.  Since corn could only be stored for three years, however, any drought lasting longer than three years depleted the store houses and left Chaco Canyon unable to sustain itself or redistribute to outliers needing help.  This made the outliers unwilling to share their surpluses with Chaco Canyon and hoard their crops for themselves.  The collapse was amazingly swift.

Where did they go?  Jared Diamond proposes, “By analogy with historically witnessed abandonments of other pueblos during a drought in the 1670-‘s, probably many people starved to death, some people killed each other, and survivors fled to other settled areas in the Southwest.”

But, unlike the Maya and the Moche, the rulers of Chaco did not resort to human sacrifice to stave off their demise.  There are several reasons that they never rose to this level of cruelty.  The lace of a large centrally controlled military made enforcement from Chaco impossible.  There are signs that there were violent skirmishes at outlier sites, but not on the scale that would suggest a large military invasion.

Stephen Lekson offers a unique  alternative.  In his book, “The Chaco Meridian”, Lekson suggests, “The end of Chaco was a major event over the entire Pueblo world.  Far to the south, for example, the Mimbres achievement ended at the same time. … The Chaco capital moved to the north …”  The Chaco elite, according to Lekson, re-established the Chaco system along the Las Animas river at the site called Aztec.  Again from Lekson, “Aztec continued the traditions and forms of Chaco, but ruled a diminished realm …”

What is unique about the Lekson hypothesis is that Aztec lies along the meridian that intersects with Chaco and a road follows that meridian from Chaco to Aztec.  Even more remarkable, after the fall of Aztec in A.D. 1275, “The Elite moved completely off the Plateau, through the vacant despoiled Mimbres country and into an empty niche, ripe for major canal irrigation.  They built their new city, Paquime, on the Rio Casas Grandes.” 

 

Which, remarkably, lies along the same meridian!

Inconvenient Arrogance, Part 5: The Chaco Phenomenon

Pueblo Bonito -- Chaco Canyon
from the rim

When the current Southwestern cultures reach back in their lore to their origins and refer to the “White House”-- “places of wonder and tragedy”, they are probably referring to the great pueblo houses at Chaco Canyon.  Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the “Great Houses” was five-stories high, covered over two acres, contained over 650 rooms, 45 small kivas and two “Great Kivas”.  Kivas were large, round pits or chambers used for religious and ceremonial events.

Stephen Lekson, who has studied the Anasazi phenomenon for over twenty years, described Chaco Canyon this way in a recent article for National Geographic, "Imagine that you're a teenage kid in the 11th century, coming from the boondocks to Chaco for the first time.  You've walked four days from the north across that desolate plain to get here and you look over the edge . . . what would you think?  It would scare the hell out of you … They planned it that way—as theater."

Great Kiva at Chetro Ketl
Note: hidden chamber in back enabled underground
passage to center of kiva for theatrical entrances

Within its thirty-two square miles, there were thirteen of these great houses!  If you have ever driven through the heart of New Mexico, which is where Chaco Canyon resides, you have to admire the raw beauty of the arid lands.  But it is hard to imagine that anyone could etch out a living there.  Even today, houses are few and far between.  But in its heyday, it was estimated that over 5,000 lived in Chaco Canyon.

I think that the harsh conditions may have contributed to the extraordinary achievements because in order to survive they had to be extraordinarily creative and resolute.   But why build there in the first place?  Initially, it was a favorable location for that part of New Mexico since the narrow canyon caught rain runoff from the upland areas surrounding it.  This enabled the farmers in the canyon to capture water even when it didn’t rain directly on the canyon.  The soil was also quite fertile from the runoff.  The inventive residents learned to build dams and channels to capture, hold, and direct the water and, as a result, the “Chaco Wash” was able to support a much larger population than surrounding areas.

I have saved the Anasazi for last not only because the great Anasazi culture rose up after the Moche and Maya empires collapsed, but also because it seems to have avoided the extremes of the previous two cultures.  The cataclysmic event of 536 A.D. and the harsh climate that followed had begun its swing back when the Chaco Culture began to flourish and start building their unique version of large stone buildings around A.D. 700.  As the population grew, there developed a need for organization and government.

Again quoting Stephen H. Lekson, from his book “The Chaco Meridian”, “Chaco had begun about 900 [A.D.] as three villages competing, in a circumscribed canyon, for agricultural land and labor.  Those local energies spilled out of the canyon, engaging and entangling allies from around the agriculturally rich rim of the Chaco Basin.  By 1020 [A.D.] Chaco had emerged as a small but important central place.  Variable rainfall meant that a good year in the north might be a disaster in the south; Chaco’s serendipitous middle place promoted its rise as a kind of regional “capital” – a place to store and exchange commodities and a “corn bank” to even out the agricultural variability of the Chaco Basin.  Canyon leaders administered redistribution and real political power, based on garnered surpluses, developed within the canyon.  Population centers around the Chaco Basin became Chocoan “outliers”.”

And although the population within the canyon had long since outgrown the canyon’s agricultural capabilities, it was subsidized by the outliers pouring their surpluses into the “capital” across regional networks of roads visible from the air even today stretching from over 200 miles to the south, 200 miles to the north, 200 miles to the west, and over 100 miles to the east. 

 

Note: in picture [above] the scar from the road that connected Chaco Canyon to northern outliers can still be seen (left and abovef the ruin).

But, the empire proved to be very fragile.  Due to the nature of corn, it can only be stored for three years before it becomes too rotten or infested to eat.  Therefore, a severe drought lasting longer than three years could deplete corn supplies.  That fatal event happened around A.D. 1130 according to tree ring dating.   Unable to support itself and reliant on the outliers for food, the empire began to collapse as, according to Jared Diamond in his book “Collapse”, “… the outlying settlements that had formerly supplied the Chaco political and religious centers with food lost faith in the Chacoan priests whose prayers for rain remained unanswered, and they refused to make more food deliveries.”

There is evidence of intense warfare throughout the Chacoan empire.  But, unlike the desperate measures taken by the Mayan and Moche leaders and priests, there is no evidence that the Chaco elite resorted to human sacrifices.  Construction in Chaco had completely ceased by A.D. 1170 and the great houses were empty.  What happened to the people of Chaco Canyon?  More on that in the next installment of “Inconvenient Arrogance”.

-- Courtney Miller

Inconvenient Arrogance -- Part 2

When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.
-- David Hume

The Power of the Astronomer



Mayan Observatory

Today, astronomy is just one of the sciences and most people are, at best, fascinated by the night sky and the advancing sun and moon.  But throughout ancient times, the astronomer was critical to agricultural societies.  Someone had to watch the sunrises and sunsets, or the changing star patterns, or the moon cycles to determine the seasons for planting and harvesting.

Different cultures developed very sophisticated methods for tracking these phenomena.  And it appears that as the astronomers got better at their craft, they also acquired more and more importance, and, therefore, more and more power in the society. 

Fajada Butte, Chaco Canyon, NM
Anasazi Observatory



Sun Dagger marking the summer solstice
Atop Fajada Butte
http://www.colorado.edu/Conferences/chaco/tour/fajada.htm

There was a pattern.  At first, the astronomer(s) earned their keep in the community and they basically provided calendric information.  Initially, it was the planting seasons, then the timing for ritual celebrations.  Over time, their function branched out and they began to study weather patterns and gained skills in prediction.  And, finally, the step that man seeks in all of his activities – control.  The ability to not only predict the weather but determine the weather – cause it to rain, etc.  Most societies recognized a greater force controlling climate – God or gods, spirits.  The astronomy class gained great power by being able to connect and communicate with the higher forces and eventually, influence the gods.  It elevated the astronomer/priests, in some cases, to the level of gods.
Over time, with the climate stable and year-after-year of the same weather cycles, the credit for the stability shifted to the astronomer/priests.  And the leaders were credited for the successful crops and the bountiful harvests and the glorious way of life created.

But, of course, climate invariably changes.  And when the astronomer/priests were unable to stop the change or correct the droughts or bring on rain, they faced a huge dilemma and the threat of losing their place in the society.  So, when they failed to influence the gods, they blamed the society itself for offending the gods by their offensive actions.  Society had offended the gods and must make amends.  Greater and greater penances had to be paid to “right the wrong” and gain back the favor of the gods.

In many societies, it was even human sacrifices.  In some cases, captured enemies were sacrificed to appease the gods.  In some cases, the most precious of all assets in the community, the virgins were sacrificed.  When, in the end and over time, it was proven that, alas, the priests did not have control of the elements, or influence over the gods, often the entire society failed.  The grand cities and temples built by the arrogant leaders and priests were abandoned or destroyed and the leaders and priests vanquished.

Continue to Part 3

-- Courtney Miller