I multiplied by 16 feet and realized, That cant add up to 275 kilograms.. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. For more information, contact Bullfrog Films, Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 1-800-543-FROG (3764); info@. These straps, which sherpas, or native mountain peoples of Nepal, still widely use today, loop over the top of the head. Tumplines allow one to carry heavier weights over larger distances without getting fatigued, said Wilson, now a medical student at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The site remains one of the most important . DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103876, Provided by Since its release in 2000, our award-winning film, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, has aired more than 10,000 times on 95% of PBS stations across the country. "We feel that it is dubious to infer Chaco era timber transportation methods from a staged 20th century image," they wrote. In a 2022 study, they and their colleagues estimated that a pine log measuring about 16 feet longprobably weighed closer to 85 kilograms(a little over 185 pounds). Pueblo leaders speak of the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today.The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. I am the Rural and Small Communities Reporter at KUNC. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Ancient Chaco. Anna Sofaer, producer and director of the Robert Redford-narrated documentaries The Sun Dagger (1982) and The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (2000), gives a 6:30 p.m. lecture on Thursday, Jan. 24. I've heard people say: That's our church. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. 56 minutes, ColorGrade Level: 7-12, College, AdultUS Release Date: 1999; Copyright Date: 1999ISBN: 1-56029-812-XDirected by Anna SofaerProduced by The Solstice ProjectNarrated by Robert RedfordWritten by Anna Sofaer and Matt DibbleMusic by Michael Stearns. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. "The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. The film argues that the massive multistory buildings and roads the Chacoans constructed in a forbidding stretch of what is now New Mexico were designed to form a vast, stunningly precise map of the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon.' THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON helps students to appreciate the scientific and cultural achievements of a significant civilization in pre-Columbian North America. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID," said Kram, an emeritus professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. They first tried carrying a log on their shoulders. The duo and their colleaguesdescribed their experimentFeb. 22 in theJournal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The documentary is very well done, but its the PLACE thats the subject here. A majority of the Great Houses built before A.D. 1000 are front-facing to the SSE. 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. These structures offered humans a domestic sphere within a realm of wild nature, ensuring stability, centricity, meaning, security, familiarities, knowledge of controlling, social and power classifications. It was a long, hard day.. The actual demonstration was to try and walk a long distance carrying 66 pounds per person, walking side by side, Kram said. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. As a person who studies biomechanics and physiology of the human body, I was like, that's crazy, Kram said. Their immense buildings in Chaco Canyon, a remote, barely habitable canyon innorthwestern New Mexico, have been the subject of heated archaeological debate for decades. 56 minutes, color. Tumplines are hardly a new innovation. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. 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. 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. This document is subject to copyright. A new study has solved the third mystery - how they carry as many as 200,000 16-foot-long wooden beams to Chaco Canyon from forests over 60 miles away. Once home to the Ancient Puebloans, Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between 850 and 1250 A.D. By 1000 A.D., the Chaco culture had firmly established a spiritual, political, and economic center serving the Four Corners area. It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. Engineered roads stretch across dozens of miles in straight lines to significant landforms, but with little evidence of travel or trade. Lecture: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. 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 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." Read About our Chaco Tours in 360 West Magazine Article, The Dallas News, Adventure Pro Magazine and Cowboys & Indians. University of Colorado Boulder Regents of the University of Colorado 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.' The SSE orientation tradition continued during the peak of Bonito Phase construction activity (A.D. 1020-1100). 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 consistency of cosmological and solstitial references among Late Bonito Phase Great Houses at Chaco indicates that the Late Bonito Chacoan elites power may have rested in part on esoteric astronomical knowledge, and an elevated cultural status for solar events. Directors Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - 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. Chaco is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. I am grateful to Anna Sofaer for involving me in her decades-long passion to explain this extraordinary and magical place.Robert Redford, The videobecomes part of the ongoing dialogue between archeologists, anthropologists, and native peoples(Its) a multi-level phenomenon, like Chaco, which embraces complexity, beauty and mystery.Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, A captivating look at one of the most impressive archaeological sites in North AmericaAnna Sofaer reveals the solar and lunar complexity of Chacoan buildings with impressive visual economy and clarity. The most uncomfortable part, Wilson noted, was the strap of the tumpline rubbing into his head. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Since the discovery of the prehistoric ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, their purpose has baffled archaeologists. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were the materials used by the Chacoan architects and builders to express their knowledge of an order in the universe.This is the long-awaited sequel to Anna Sofaers classic film THE SUN DAGGER, which changed forever our perception of Americas earliest Indian peoples. The solitary tree was once thought to represent the living "center of the world" for the people of Pueblo Bonito, the largest of Chaco Canyon's "great houses," which was occupied between A.D. 850 . "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.". A 1925 publication featured a photograph depicting eight young men from Zuni Pueblo carrying a log: four on each side holding thin cross-poles at hip height, with the log laid on top. Robert Redford, The video becomes part of the ongoing dialogue between archeologists, anthropologists, and native peoples [It's] a multi-level phenomenon, like Chaco, which embraces complexity, beauty, and mystery. Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, "A stunning piece of work the graphics are astounding and the entire production is powerful." [DVD] examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. That means my focus is building relationships and telling stories from under-covered pockets of Colorado. The duo and their colleagues described their experiment Feb. 22 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. These cosmographic concepts of habitation across cultures are transformed into designed landscapes, cultic caves, tents, campsites, houses, cities, or temples. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information 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. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. Chaco Culture For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. 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. This third orientation tradition may represent some form of cultural affiliation with contemporary Rio Grande Valley people based upon comparison to previous orientation studies conducted by Lakatos, or it may perhaps represent an alternative cosmological intent. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Were thrilled to announcethat our award-winning film, The Mystery of Chaco Canyon is nowstreaming on Amazon Prime CLICK HERE, You can now purchase the DVD of our full-length documentary on Amazon CLICK HERE, Rent and stream the full version on Vimeo CLICK HERE. Refereed proceedings of The Oxford VI International Conference on Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy and Culture and SEAC in 1999, Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the American Southwest, The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, edited by Stephen Lekson, Kim Malville, J. McKim Malville, Andy Munro, The Southwest School of Landscape Archaeology, Memory, Meaning, and Masonry: The Late Bonito Chacoan Landscape, Anasazi solar marker: The use of a natural rockfall, Religious Behavior in the Post-Chaco Years, The Housing of the World: About the Significance of Cosmographic Concepts for Habitation, The Astronomical Context of the Archaeology and Architecture of the Chacoan Culture, 2006 National Conference on the Beginning Design Student An Inquiry into the Intersection and Fusion of Astronomical Alignments and Sacred Geometry in the Design Process of Architecture, Foundation Studio, Naked-Eye Astronomy for Cultural Astronomers (2008), The Hooper Ranch Pueblo Sun Dagger Shrine Revisited - Revealing Greater Regional Significance, Possible astronomical references in the planning of the Great Hopewell Road, Visions of the Cosmos: Ceremonial Landscapes and Civic Plans (2008), Pueblo Folklore, Landscape Phenomenology and the Visual Poetics of Fajada Butte, Astronomy and the Design of Late Bonito Great Houses at Chaco Canyon, ARCHAEOASTRONOMY IN THE FIELD; METHODOLOGIES APPLIED IN CHACO CANYON, Ancestors and the sun: astronomy, architecture and culture at Chaco Canyon, 2013. So how did the ancestral Puebloans manage it? They describe the deliberate action of their ancestors to seal off the buildings and these aspects of their past. Once you get it positioned so that it's right on the crown of your head, then the load lines up with your neck and with the rest of your spine, Kram said. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. In and around Chaco Canyon, archaeologists have found ceramic effigies illustrating Puebloan people using tumplines to carry resources, as well as yucca fiber wraps that could be the remains of ancient tumplines.. What is known is that beginning around the mid-800s, Chaco people began building here, creating multi-story stone buildings on a grand scale. Surprisingly, these buildings that required such large investment of labor and planning reveal little evidence of residential use. 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. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. Survey results were assessed in the context of positional astronomy, Pueblo ethnography, and the archaeological record including published construction dates for the sites. Speaker: Anna Sofaer and her colleagues Robert Weiner and Richard Friedman. 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). 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. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON presents new discoveries about the intricateastronomical knowledge of an ancient Pueblo Indian people, ancestors of todays Pueblopeople. Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon. The authors mention that sherpas in Nepal still use tumplines to carry loads as heavy as 111 kilograms, all the while guiding tourists whose shoulders are likely burning with much . 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. Its wide roads, circular ritual sites called kivas, and sprawling. James Wilson, left, and Rodger Kram, right, carry a ponderosa pine log weighing more than 130 pounds in Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado. Chaco Canyon was the center of the ancestral Puebloan world, home to immense great houses as high as five stories tall and containing as many as 800 rooms, cavernous kivas built so that dancers . W. David Laird, Books of the Southwest'The video, then, is a multi-leveled phenomenon, like Chaco, which embraces complexity, beauty and mystery.' Did you know the U.S. has a pre-historic Puebloan place of mystery that has . All rights reserved. During the same time period, SSE orientation was dominant in the Totah region to the north at sites including Aztec and Chimney Rock. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. Ancient Desert Mystery Did Thousands Vanish Without A Trace Because Of An Ominous Prophecy And Revenge? Chaco Canyon was a huge ancestral Puebloan city located in what is now Northern New Mexico, about 100 miles south of Durango. The irritation paid off. Study Traces DNA Of Inca Emperors To Their Modern-Day Descendants, 2,000-Year Old Engraved Kurdistan Tablet Referring To A Hellenistic Ruler Demetrius Analyzed, Does A 2,000-Year-Old Tomb Belong To Marquis of Haihun? Its massive stone and timber buildings were constructed starting in 800 A.D. with materials taken from as far away as the Zuni Mountains to the south and the Chuska Mountains to the west. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. In 1977 Sofaer visited Chaco Canyon as a volunteer recording ancient Southwestern American rock art. Although this solar marker is considerably older than the one on Fajada Butte, here in succession both the early morning shadow-line and Sun Dagger itself appear to emanate from the hand of an anthropomorphic figure, first bisecting a spiral and then, a few minutes later, an S-shaped image. Most large complexes had four or five stories and averaged over 200 rooms, with the largest boasting as many as 700 rooms. And they decided to test whether the journey was possible themselves. World Archaeological Congress Handbook Series. 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. Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6vhwh3rTB0rmu6mN9bj3A/joinMAD HISTORY .. HISTORY has no sides, no opinions no rig. Written by Anna Sofaer and Matt Dibble. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. Understanding that it was sacred to a People was what mattered. Dr. T.J. Ferguson, Anthropologist/Archaeologist'A stunning piece--the graphics are astounding and the entire production is powerful.' 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. 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. "It was just debilitating," Kram said. This newly conceived series (in progress) will bring recent revelations about the ancient Native Americans who built massive enigmatic structures throughout the southwest.