Native American Skies: Lunar Standstill in Chaco Canyon

March 05, 2015
  

In any given month, the rising moon swings between two extremes on the eastern horizon, similar to the oscillation of the rising sun during the year.  When the moon reaches its maximum northern or southern declination, it has a “standstill” similar to the sun at summer and winter solstices.  The standstills could be said to be the moon’s equivalence to the Solar Solstices.  [for details on lunar standstills, refer to Native American Skies: Lunar Standstills]

 

This is a preview of Native America Skies: Lunar Standstill in Chaco Canyon. Read the full post (593 words, 12 images, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Great Sites: Chaco Culture National Historical Park: Part 3: Chetro Ketl

Chetro Ketl
Original Collonades are filled in

 

Mayans in New Mexico?   In the Chaco Culture National Historical Park there is a Great House built by the ancestral Puebloan culture that is a glaring example of the influence of the Mayan culture.  If you look closely at the front wall facing the plaza at Chetro Ketl, you can see that it “was originally built as a row of masonry columns which once held horizontal timbers to support a roof over an open cloister-like porch.”   This quote is from the guide book provided by the NHP.  It goes on to say, “Sometime later the spaces between the columns were filled with masonry to completely close the passageway.”  And later the area was divided further into smaller rooms.

Chetro Ketl
Artist's Rendering by Courtney Miller

 
To give you an idea of what it would have looked like originally, I have drawn a sketch with the porch as it was before it was filled in.  “Pillars and colonnades are features of prehistoric architecture in central Mexico, but were unknown to the American Southwest before the Bonito Phase.”  Note the similarity of style in the drawing with the buildings in the Mayan city of Palenque.  This is just one more piece of evidence that there was extensive trade between the Chaco Culture and the Central American cultures.

 

 

 

Mayan building in Palenque
Note colonnaded porches

Chetro Ketl is due east of Pueblo Bonito.  A line extended from the front wall of Pueblo Bonita bisects the heart of Chetro Ketl and they are clearly visible to each other.   There are many similarities between the two, but some striking differences as well.  Chetro Ketl’s floor plan is more the traditional rectangular design as opposed to the unique “half moon” shape of Pueblo Bonito. 

 

 

 

Chetro Ketl was also the termination point of three great roads.  Just to the northeast an ancient stairway hewn into the canyon wall led to a prepared roadway at the top of the bluff.  This road once led north to the village known today as Aztec ruins.  Due south there is the remnants of another stair leading out of the valley and connecting with a north-south road that led to the southern outliers.   

 

West and a little south there is the remnant of a stairs that once connected to a short road to the Great House “Pueblo Alto”.  Watch a video on this stairs.  You can still see the final steps terminating in one room, part of a small house of about 30 rooms and five kivas.  All that remains of the stairway above the house are the holes where supports were placed and a few stairs hewn in the rock cliff.  Above the bluff a 16-20 foot road led to Pueblo Alto.  Typically, the first stop for visitors.  The steps would have landed on the roof of the back room and then a grand rock staircase would have brought the visitor into the front room.  A regal entrance onto the canyon floor just behind the Great House, Chetro Ketl.

The ancestral Puebloans built over 200 miles of roads connecting most, if not all, of the pueblos of the Chaco world.  These roads were 16 to 20 feet wide and bordered by berms of soil or loose rock and often filled with soil to keep them level .  “The roads are not simple trails following the easiest routes, but are straight for miles, connecting points not in sight of one another, and disregarding rough terrain.”

Chetro Ketl also hosts both subterranean Kivas, which are common and tower Kivas built on the third floor which was peculiar to this era in the canyon.  See the Kivas.

Chetro Ketl is a fascinating site to visit and should definitely be on your list when you visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

-- Courtney Miller

Great Sites: Chaco Culture National Historical Park, part 2: Pueblo Bonito

Aerial view of Pueblo Bonito

It is the largest of the Great Houses at Chaco Canyon and possibly the largest anywhere in North America.   It is the most thoroughly investigated and excavated and there is good evidence that the massive structure was intricately pre-planned down to its odd placement in the canyon.  For instance, the thickness of the walls on the ground floor rooms indicate that it was planned to be five stories high from the beginning although construction, started in 850 A.D., would take 200 years to complete.



Aerial view of Pueblo Bonito
Note the remains of "Threatening Rock"
in upper right

And it was placed too close to the canyon wall indicating that its placement was based on a higher
purpose.  Despite a large piece of the canyon wall, later named “Threatening Rock”,  that had broken loose and would undoubtedly fall someday, they stubbornly stuck to their plan.  Threatening Rock did come down and knocked out a good portion of the back wall January 1941 (note the rock pile in the lower left of the picture above).  Something about that spot made it critical that it be placed there.




What is the structure?  It is Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico.

Another interesting anomaly is the design of Pueblo Bonito.  The floor plan is in the shape of a “D” or, as our tour guide pointed out, a “half moon”.  Looking at the aerial view are you seeing another striking similarity to the moon?  The craters?  Well, before we get too carried away, the round kivas would have been covered!   Most Great Houses were square or rectangular or, if they had a curved wall, it was in front of the courtyard.  But almost always, the back wall was straight. (Of course, other would be houses that were unplanned or built on covered ledges like at Mesa Verde).   At Pueblo Bonito, the entire back wall is curved and the wall in front of the courtyard is straight. 



Tour of Casa Rincanada
Canyon wall between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl
is in the background
 

An interesting phenomenon resides between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl, the Great House to the east, according to our guide.  This cliff face produces great acoustics.  The field between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl showed signs of use, but was not used for agricultural purposes.  Our guide speculates that it was a community gathering place.  The sound from drums and flutes played next to the cliff face would have carried across the valley.

Although Pueblo Bonito probably contained over 800 rooms in its heyday,  research suggests that very few people lived in the Great Houses permanently.  For instance, there were very few burials found in the canyon.   This would suggest that the Great Houses in Chaco canyon were more like resorts than villages.  Goods from all over the southwest, Central America, and the east support the theory that Chaco Canyon was a central trading hub.  It is more likely, that people came to the canyon to trade their goods and while there experience the lavish ceremonial events staged in the Great Kivas, large dance fields, and great plazas.

Pueblo Bonito would have been a most impressive place to visit back then.  With the best architecture and construction, oversized rooms,  grand courtyards, huge Kivas, and massive storage facilities, it would have been a spectacle.   It was like no other place in the southwest.  Even in a canyon where Great Houses dotted the valley and canyon rims, it was (and is) unique.

Imagine approaching this enormous, five-story “hotel” covering three acres with an enormous courtyard in front where dancers in brightly colored costumes were dancing to the thundering beat of massive foot drums, melodious flutes, rattles and chanting singers.  A massive round Kiva sitting in the center of the courtyard held impressive ceremonial rituals.  I imagine that it might have been like going to New York City on business and taking in Broadway plays and shopping.


A SIDE NOTE:

These cylinder jars from Pueblo Bonito contained chocolate!  It was in liquid form and imported from Central America for elite guests.  In some Maya ceremonies a cacao beverage was frothed by pouring the liquid from one vessel to another.  The Maya were known to ground cacao beans, mix them with spices, chilies, and water, and frothed the drink for consumption either hot or cold.  In addition to this exotic drink, trade with Central America included rare Quetzal feathers and parrots.

 

For more interesting facts about the Chaco Culture, check out these brochures

 

-- Courtney Miller

 

Link to Part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 1

The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.
-- Rachel Carson

Throughout history, man has repeatedly reached a point in the development of his society where he has determined that he influences nature.  And time after time, nature humiliates him. 

What I am presenting in this series is the affect that climate change can have on society.  There have been many times throughout the history of man when the earth has experienced abrupt climate change.  And what interests me is how often man has presumed that he was the cause of the climate change or that he can somehow prevent it or reverse it.  And what is alarming to me is how often that assumption has lead to catastrophe – not climatic catastrophe, man-made catastrophe!  Time and time again, we see the complete downfall of great cultures with grand cities and extensive economic networks.

During periods of climate stability, man has learned to adjust to the climate and flourish.  Those that have had the genius to coordinate their efforts to maximize the potential offered by a stable climate have often risen to great heights culturally.  And those who lead their societies to these momentous achievements have been rewarded with tremendous power and wealth.  It begins with a breakthrough understanding of the seasons and the climate associated with those seasons.  Over time, patterns are recognized and eventually predicted.  Astronomers learn that when the sun rises at a certain point it is the beginning of spring or summer or fall or winter.  This information is invaluable for determining when to plant, when to harvest, when to prepare for winter.  Regular spring rains are prepared for and farmers learn to contain excess water to use for irrigation between rains.  As these regular patterns come to be relied upon, they become vital to the success of the society. 

Often favorable weather is attributed to proper behavior and unfavorable weather as punishment for improper behavior.  But when the climate significantly changes, these same leaders are looked to for guidance to protect the status quo.  Having taken credit for favorable weather, they are now blamed for unfavorable weather.  Seeking to maintain their power and control, they turn the blame around.   They blame the people for bringing on bad weather with bad behavior.  And they often resort to extraordinary measures to "appease the gods" to retain control.

Pueblo Bonita in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Ancient Anasazi Capital

When we look back at the Moche culture or the Mayan culture or the Anasazi culture it is easy to judge them as simply arrogant to believe that they had any influence over their climate.  But, the fact is, they had good reason to believe that they did and the greatest minds of the time thought that they did and the general public believed their leaders and the experts.  It was this arrogance, however, that may have brought them down.  Their stubborn persistence to try to regain control of the climate and thereby maintain their credibility with the citizens, led them to extraordinary and extreme actions.  Actions, that we look back on and find atrocious.  But, if we look closer, we can find very striking parallels in the way we are reacting to our current perception of climate change.

In the articles that follow, I will reach back in time and take a closer look at some of  the cultures of the past that have gone through climate change and present what I think is credible evidence that the arrogance of Man can significantly contribute to his downfall!

Continue to Part 2

-- Courtney Miller

July 4th, 1054!

On July 4, 1054, in ancient China, a Chinese astronomer noticed an amazing thing!  A Star bright enough to be seen in broad daylight!  He recorded the event calling the mysterious star a “Guest Star”.  He noted that it was four times brighter than Venus.  After about 23 days, the star moved to the night sky and was noted by astronomers in Arabia, Japan, and even here in America.

The native American astronomer, an Anasazi living in Chaco Canyon, noted his discovery by painting the star and its position related to the crescent moon on the underside of a cliff shelf.  He even signed his drawing with his hand print.  The petroglyph can still be seen below West Mesa in Chaco Canyon, just outside the great house called Peñasco Blanco.

Out of curiousity, I ran my astronomy program “Starry Night” and set the date back to 1054.  I let the program sequence through the night sky starting July 4th.  What I found was that the star (we know it today as M1, the Crab Nebula) was indeed in the day sky at first.  Later it progressed to the night sky.  Below is a screen print from my Starry Night program showing the Crab Nebula approaching the moon.  Compare its position to the moon compared to the petroglyph!

Over time, the star dimmed until it was just a faint fuzzy spot in the constellation Tauras.
The object was rediscovered in 1731 by John Bevis who added it to his sky atlas, Uranographia Britannica.  In 1758, the astronomer, Charles Messier, independantly discovered it again.  Only, Messier was very disappointed with his discovery.  Messier was looking for the comet Haley that was predicted to return.  When he spotted the fuzzy object in the vicinity of where he expected to find the comet, he assumed he had found a comet!  When the fuzzy object did not move after observing for several days, he knew that it was not a comet but a nebula.  Frustrated, he declared that there should be a “catalog” of known objects so that astronomers would not have to continue to “rediscover” them.  The fuzzy nebula became “M1” in Messier’s now famous catalog.   Messier later learned of Bevis’ discovery and gave him credit in a letter.  Ironically, M1 was again confused with Haley’s second predicted return.
So what was the bright star of 1054?  It was the first recorded “Super Nova”!   “Super Nova” is the term given to the event of a star exploding!   When it first exploded, it was extremely bright.  But as the debris separated, it became dimmer and dimmer.   J.C. Duncan of Mt. Wilson Observatory compared photographic plates taken 11.5 years apart, and found that the Crab Nebula was expanding at an average of about 0.2" per year.   Backtracing of this motion showed that this expansion must have begun about 900 years ago.   Simultaneously,  Knut Lundmark, with the Astronomical Society, noted the proximity of the nebula to the 1054 supernova.

If the picture doesn’t remind you of a crab, you’re not the only one.   It was christened the “Crab Nebula” based on drawings made by Lord Rosse in 1844.  Want to see it for yourself?  You will need a good pair of binoculars (10X50 or better).  The nebula is located in the horn of the constellation of Tauras.  Go to http://www.telescopes.com/findcrabnebula_lp.cfm for steps to help you find it.