A single case is identified that may incorporate three of the traditions. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder) By Daniel Strain, Nicholas Goda Feb. 22, 2023 Directors Gazing at the horizon: heavenly phenomena and cultural preferences within northwest Scotland? Understanding all aspects of the thing wasn't important to me. Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6vhwh3rTB0rmu6mN9bj3A/joinMAD HISTORY .. HISTORY has no sides, no opinions no rig. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. During the same time period, SSE orientation was dominant in the Totah region to the north at sites including Aztec and Chimney Rock. The teams findings open up a new understanding of the day-to-day lives of the people who shaped the Southwest more than a thousand years ago, said study co-author Robert Weiner. Four ESE facing Great Houses were constructed within and in proximity to Chaco between A.D. 860 and A.D. 1090. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON helps students to appreciate the scientific and cultural achievements of a significant civilization in pre-Columbian North America. Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. A majority of the Great Houses built before A.D. 1000 are front-facing to the SSE. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information CNMN Collection Well-paced and absorbing, simultaneously poetic and analytical, this film provides a new benchmark of understanding for serious studies of ancestral-Pueblo astronomy and culture.Dr. On todays show, we hear from two Colorado scientists who recently discovered one of the oldest female infant burial sites in a cave in Europe. video produced and directed by Anna Sofaer. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. Privacy Legal & Trademarks Campus Map. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. 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. 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. Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads, said Kram, who is a passionate runner in his free time. That still left a bigger question unanswered, though. And the published oral traditions and ethnography of the Pueblo and Dineo peoples descended from the Chachoans don't shed much light on the issue, either. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. It is the summation of 20 years of research. His first move was to revise the inaccurate 600 pound weight estimate by doing his own weight estimations on a log from his wood pile. The Wall Street Journal'A beautiful piece. Explore how the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their archMoreMore, Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. Register to request a quote. He read a statistic suggesting that the mass of a typical roof beam, or viga, in a Chacoan Great House likely averaged around 275 kilograms (more than 600 pounds). Peter Whiteley, Chair, Dept. 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. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID," said Kram, an emeritus professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 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. That's where we go to heal, to pray,'" said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. It is the summation of 20 years of research. The Mysterious Books Of Prophecies Of The Knights Templar Where Are They Hidden? It is located in the region known as the Four Corners, where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has agreed to put off oil and gas leasing for a year on land that tribes consider sacred surrounding Chaco Culture, Northern Colorado Center for Investigative Reporting, Tom Sizemore, 'Saving Private Ryan' actor, has died at 61, Election-denying former Colorado clerk guilty of obstruction, He visited Disneyland 2,995 days in a row. Kram decided to take proving his theory a stepor haulfurther, though. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. 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. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland? Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. Chaco Canyon is a famous archaeological area in the American Southwest. Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, Sofaer, Anna (film director) Many scientists have hypothesized about how the Chacoans might have accomplished this feat. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon: Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy 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. Significantly, recently a large effigy of Quetzalcoatl which was removed from the site prior to the Field Museum's 1961 excavation has been recovered, and the embellishment of the shrine itself as an equinox marker has been noted. Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request. Building upon Hayes and Leksons assessments of orientations, temporal analysis of these four traditions may improve our understanding of shifting patterns of multi-cultural collaboration and dominance among ancestral Pueblo groups. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf / 1060 . THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. The Mystery of CHACO CANYON - YouTube The biggest mystery in North America is Chaco Canyon . James Wilson, left, and Rodger Kram, right, use tumplines to carry a log weighing more than 130 pounds in Boulder's Chautauqua Park. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. But that account is inconsistent with the known sourcing of the timbersthe Chuska, Zuni, San Mateo, La Plata, ad Sa Juan Mountainsand there is also no archaeological evidence for the existence of such carts, according to the authors. Redford, Robert (narrator) "As they became more comfortable with their training, we began alternating training days between carrying light loads for greater distances and heavier loads for shorter distances.". We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. Written by Anna Sofaer and Matt Dibble. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. Ancient Chaco. Located above the Little Colorado River in east-central Arizona, a natural rock formation casts a dynamic shadow-line onto a panel of ancient rock art during the summer solstice. NASA began researching Chaco Canyon in the 1970s, when the organization discovered some 300 kilometers of sophisticated roadways and underground kivas through multispectral scanning technology. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Ad Choices. This document is subject to copyright. To construct these great houses, archaeologists have estimated that the Chacoans would have needed wood from some 200,000 trees, and those 16-foot-long wooden beams must have been transported from mountain ranges as far as 70 miles (110 km) away. Colorado Sun. This newly conceived series (in progress) will bring recent revelations about the ancient Native Americans who built massive enigmatic structures throughout the southwest. Tumplines are hardly a new innovation. 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. During the same period, the first cardinal NS and EW architectural alignments were also completed. [DVD] examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, edited by Bruno David and Julian Thomas, pp. When a load is positioned at the top of the head, the spine supports the weight and it doesnt fatigue muscles. Copyright 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), all rights reserved. 56 minutes, color. Dr. Gerald S. Hawkins, Commissioner, History of Astronomy, International Astronomical Union'A captivating look at one of the most impressive archaeological sites in North AmericaAnna Sofaer reveals the solar and lunar complexity of Chacoan buildings with impressive visual economy and clarity. February 17, 2014 Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is one of the largest archeoastronmical sites in the world. "We feel that it is dubious to infer Chaco era timber transportation methods from a staged 20th century image," they wrote. In a remote canyon in northwestern New Mexico sits one of America's greatest historical treasures and one of the Southwest's greatest mysteries. Within the published archaeoastronomy work attention to Pueblo ethnography, archaeological evidence including temporal data, statistical significance, and the consideration of multiple hypotheses has varied widely. That astonishment was Krams entry point into the mystery. It seemed unrealistically high to him. Then the researchers hit on the idea of tumplines, which are depicted in ceramic effigiesrecovered from close to Chaco Canyon. Read our affiliate link policy. The irritation paid off. 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. Under the terms of a U.S. National Park Service field research permit some location- specific site data has been deliberately redacted from this document, as required by the U.S. Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. The actual demonstration was to try and walk a long distance carrying 66 pounds per person, walking side by side, Kram said. "These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.". 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.. New CU Boulder research finds that overweight populations have a 22% higher mortality risk than those of healthy weight, while obese populations have as much as double the risk. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. 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. "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. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. Located 72 miles south of Farmington, Chaco Canyon contains the largest collection of ruins in Northwestern New Mexico. This small calendar allowed for those living at Chaco Canyon to determine the beginning . Cinematography by Steve Bannister [and 15 others]; computer animation by the Imaging Research Center; music, Michael Stearns; editor, Matt Dibble. Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. Tour starts at 7:15AM from Equinox Bar just off the Hotel Chaco lobby | 2000 Bellemah Ave NW, Albuquerque, NM and ends at 5:45PM at the same location. I've heard people say: That's our church. An examination of the prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, which functioned as a complex ceremonial center, harmonized by extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads, and elegant light and shadow markings. famous site in the Southwest called Chaco Canyon, Majority of students masked up amid early COVID days, Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed, Tend to get sick when the air is dry? It's still not a piece of cake to haul a 200 pound log 60 miles, Kram said. Rather it argues that it was a center of astronomy and cosmology and that a primary purpose for the construction of the elaborate Chacoan buildings and certain roads was to express astronomical interests and to be integral parts of a celestial patterning.While the Chacoans left no written text to help us to understand their culture, their thoughts are preserved in the language of their architecture, roads and light markings. I am the Rural and Small Communities Reporter at KUNC. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. 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. Wage theft is commonplace in San Diego. (Credit: NPS). What Does The Brain Of The Homo Erectus Fossil With The Lowest Cranial Capacity Tell About Evolution? The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. With Chaco Canyon now declared a national park and UNESCO World Heritage site, visitors to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico can marvel at the remains of 12 great houses and more than 4,000 areas of archaeological interest in the rocky landscape. And they decided to test whether the journey was possible themselves. As they became more comfortable with their training, we began alternating training days between carrying light loads for greater distances and heavier loads for shorter distances.. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say they may have solved this 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery. In the process, we get a whole new picture of the intelligence at work behind Chacoan society and its architectureThe Mystery of Chaco Canyon interweaves a narrative that is both attentive to indigenous thought and values, and robustly grounded in the rigors of scientific method. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Ritterbush - 2001 - American Anthropologist - Wiley Online Library Skip to Article Content Skip to Article Information The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . The field work, conducted under National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management permits, included compass survey, theodolite survey, and photography at a total of 28 sites. Newresearch helps explain why. The complexes also featured large circular ceremonial areas called kivas. Watch The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Full Movie IN HD Visit :: https://primeflixz.xyz/watch/tt0273858 Tlcharger : - https://primeflixz.xyz/watch/tt0273858 Thi. They attempted their final test on a forest road leading to Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, carrying the timber using tumplines on either end. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon 2000 0 hr 56 mins Documentary NR Watchlist Robert Redford narrates this report exploring magnificent 1000-year-old Native American ruins in Chaco Canyon, N.M. At. of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. 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. One of the characteristics of the human mode of existence shows up in modelling the structures and processes of the world onto the living space, which consists of certain landscapes, locations, and habitations. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. WIRED Media Group The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon reveals that, instead, Chaco was a complex ceremonial center with extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. Summaries America's Stonehenge? The teams findings suggest that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. Kram said the next step is to do more experimental work - this time, on location at Chaco Canyon, where they can demonstrate the tumpline method works as they trace the ancient hauling routes of the ancestral Puebloans. "As these guys showed, you don't have to be super trained to carry a log," he said. Could more local solutions work. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. Archaeological evidence suggests thatancient peoplesin the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. University of Colorado Boulder Regents of the University of Colorado Existing customers, please log in to view this film. Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian, Ex-Curator of Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. This research expands on previous samples of Chacoan Great Houses to include all those identified within downtown Chaco, as well as a small sample of halo and outlier Great Houses. The sun beam lines up with different spirals or edges on the equinoxes and solstices. 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). Then the researchers hit on the idea of tumplines, which are depicted in ceramic effigies recovered from close to Chaco Canyon. See page 43 of attached scanned book. The sample of Chacoan Great Houses assessed for astronomical associations was unchanged from the mid 1990s to 2007. 167-175. or, by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder. Shining light on the astronomical brilliance of the austere civilization of Chaco Canyon Narrated by Robert Redford. Two hours later a rock chimney allows a narrow beam of sunlight to pass through, forming a Sun Dagger that illuminates the petroglyphs beneath it in a dynamic manner, similar to the solar marker located upon Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon. Their immense buildings in Chaco Canyon, a remote, barely habitable canyon innorthwestern New Mexico, have been the subject of heated archaeological debate for decades. 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. Pueblo Bonito, a Chaco Canyon "Great House," once spanned hundreds of rooms and was several stories tall. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. 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.' That's where we go to heal, to pray,' said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. These straps, which sherpas, or native mountain peoples of Nepal, still widely use today, loop over the top of the head. Kiva: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History, Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica, Astronomy and Cultural Diversity. Human porters would have needed to carry 16-foot-long wooden beams to Chaco Canyon by footfollowing a network of ancient roads to sites like the Chuska Mountains to the west. The ancient Native American ruins of a Great House in Chaco Culture National Historical Park 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 roads around Chaco Canyon would have been wide enough to accommodate a line of people walking next to each other in a row - an ideal setup for Kram's multi-person tumpline theory. I cut a 1-foot-long section of pine and weighed it on my bathroom scale, said Kram. I have found that a majority of the studied Chacoan structures to conform to one or more of four architectural traditions that have astronomical associations. The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the "Ancestral Puebloans," a group of ancient people. This film is relevant to secondary- and college-level courses in Social Studies, Earth and Space Science, Traditional Literature, Pueblo Culture, Art, Symbols, and Architecture, . Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian, former Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona'I highly recommend this video for anthropological, sociological, and American studies classes.' The most uncomfortable part, Wilson noted, was the strap of the tumpline rubbing into his head. Being Native American myself (Cherokee) I felt odd about the spot being studied, trespassed upon if you will. A study finds that those on the CU Boulder and Colorado State University campuses showed high levels of mask use and positive attitudes about masks during pandemic. It's likely the best way to do it.. Archaeology February 22, 2023 How scientists hauling logs on their heads may have solved a Chaco Canyon mystery by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder James Wilson, left, and. For decades, people have wondered how ancient ancestral Puebloans transported heavy building materials to Chaco Canyon, one of the most important archaeological sites in the Southwest. Instead, they were hoping to solve an archaeological mystery that has perplexed researchers for decades: How did ancient peoples transport more than 200,000 heavy construction timbers over 60 miles to a famous site in the Southwest called Chaco Canyon? minimum distance between toilet and shower. It was just debilitating, Kram said. The Late Bonito calendrical Great Houses may have been intended as pilgrimage destinations where people could witness a dramatic solstice sunrise or sunset. This program presents evidence that the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their magnificent architecture.The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, airing Monday, October 31, 2011 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV/HD (DT21.1/cable 11 and 1011), examines the deep mysteries presented by the massive prehistoric architectural remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico. For the next 300 or so years, they quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances to build fifteen . The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. A summary of the film provides the teacher with useful background knowledge for his or her own preparation and to share with students prior to viewing the film. Its just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.. It is the summation of 20 years of research. The activities in the Guide are primarily for grade-levels 5-12, although they also may be useful to college students. While the Chacoans left no written text, their thoughts are preserved in their works. Millions of years of history reveal . Kram rewrote history when he published a paper showing the Chaco logs were actually much lighter, weighing closer to 200 pounds. Thousands of people, the ancestors of todays Din, or Navajo,and Pueblo peoples, may have lived there from around A.D. 850 to 1200. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. Faculty-Staff Email Archive Student Email Archive Graduate Student Email Archive New Buffs Email Archive Senior Class Student Email Archive CommunityEmail Archive COVID-19 Digest Archive. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were used by the Chacoan builders to unite with a cosmic order. They have been used by many cultures across the world for thousands of years, from African to Asia and the Americas. This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. Between approximately 800 A.D. and 1100 A.D., the ancient Chacoans built settlements . Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient peoples in the Southwest employed tumplines woven from yucca plants to transport everyday items like food and water. The content is provided for information purposes only. Chaco Culture For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. The complexes also featured large circular ceremonial areas called kivas. I felt that in opening the sealed rooms, the purpose of the rooms and their having been sealed being unknown to the archaeologists, something that had been meant to be kept there was being released. He and Wilson weren't trying to start a new exercise fad. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. A summary of the film provides the teacher with useful background knowledge for his or her own preparation and to share with students prior to viewing the film.