Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is one of those extraordinary gems and an excellent example of ArchaeoAstronomy. 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. Stolen Ancient Artifacts of Chaco Canyon Anasazzi - YouTube 1,000 Years Ago, Ancient Puebloans Built a Mysteriously Vast City. We University of Colorado Boulder Regents of the University of Colorado These include front-facing south-southeast (SSE) orientation, front facing east-southeast (ESE) orientation, alignments to the cardinal directions of North-South and/or East-West (NS/EW), and the construction of Great Houses at workable calendrical stations with horizon foresights for solstice dates. The number, Kram discovered, could be traced back to a study published in the 1980s. Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID. 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. 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. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID," said Kram, an emeritus professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Kram developed his own theory about how the Chacoans managed the feat, starting with his realization a few years ago that the assumptions since 1980 about the mass of a typical roof beam (viga) used in one of the great houses was likely too high: 275 kilograms, a bit more than 600 pounds. The canyon itself has been carved from ancient sea beds by centuries of erosion. UC research proves ancient Chaco Canyon deforestation - UC News 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. Archeologists estimate that the main architectual landmark, the great Kiva of Chetro Keti, was . Thus specific cultural systems including cosmovisions emerged, which allowed man to establish and maintain order and rhythm in personal and social life, interacting with given environmental conditions and to answer the human questions about the whys and wherefores concerning him and the world. One of the tribes, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, has increased its efforts to stop the project. Others have suggested that the timbers were rolled rather than carried to construction sites, perhaps bundled within smaller wood pieces for protection or carried on the shoulders. Chaco Canyon is a famous archaeological area in the American Southwest. 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. Its just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.. Dr. T.J. Ferguson, Anthropologist/Archaeologist'A stunning piece--the graphics are astounding and the entire production is powerful.' Get The Mystery of Chaco Canyon from the Microsoft Store Ancient Observatories: Chaco Canyon - Exploratorium New Mexico's Chaco Canyon was once the center of the most influential culture in the American Southwest. "It's just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.". This documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built between 850 and 1150 A.D. in northwest New Mexico. The secrets of the Chaco Canyon Pueblo homes | Popular Science The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Ritterbush - 2001 - American Then the researchers hit on the idea of tumplines, which are depicted in ceramic effigies recovered from close to Chaco Canyon. 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). Nonetheless, there is general acceptance among archaeologists of the idea that visual astronomy had a role in Chacoan culture, if for no other reason than to provide a calendrical system. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. The one hour documentary, narrated by Robert Redford . Multiple Great Houses exhibit two of these traditions in combination. Chaco Canyon Facts, Worksheets & Early Settlement For Kids - KidsKonnect of Anthropology, Sarah Lawrence College'It does an outstanding job of weaving Pueblo traditions of migration and human agency into scientific accounts of the past at Chaco Canyon, affording both forms of knowledge the respect they deservehelps place Pueblo people in their contemporary context, as well as explain the pastI highly recommend it.' Wilson and Kram rest their log on supports called "tokmas." Peter Whiteley, Dept. 2023 Cond Nast. They attempted their final test on a forest road leading to Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, carrying the timber using tumplines on either end. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. It's probably more than feasible. 1999. The composition and photography could not have been betterthe publicwill eat it up and ask for more.'F. They used sticks called tokmas, which Nepalese sherpas also employ, to take breaks, resting the log without lowering it all the way to the ground. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (TV Movie 1999) - IMDb or, by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder. "It was just debilitating," 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. That's where we go to heal, to pray,'" said Weiner, who will receive his doctorate in anthropology from CU Boulder later this spring. To construct their multi-storied buildings, the Chaco people transported by foot more than 200,000 timbers to the canyon and most of their food and ceramics from more productive lands 55 to 70 miles away. These straps, which sherpas, or native mountain peoples of Nepal, still widely use today, loop over the top of the head. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon challenges the long-held assumption that Chaco was a center of trade and offers an explanation of the site which reveals the brilliant astronomy of ancient pueblo people. The complexes also featured large circular ceremonial areas called kivas. New aerial cinematography and lidar--an aerial laser-scanning technology--are revealing a vast network of linear . So how did the ancestral Puebloans manage it? It beckons night sky tourists with its spectacular treasures. Thousands of people, the ancestors of today's Din, or Navajo, and Pueblo peoples, may have lived there from around A.D. 850 to 1200. LiDAR and 3D modeling Reveal Untold Stories of Chaco Canyon In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, edited by Bruno David and Julian Thomas, pp. 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. The ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built in 850 and 1150 A.D. in New Mexico, are described in the movie. It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder. 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. Today, the legacy of the extraordinary Chaco culture is threatened by both natural and human developments. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say they may have solved this 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery. New Mexico PBS has broadcast this full-length documentary more than 90 times. The most uncomfortable part, Wilson noted, was the strap of the tumpline rubbing into his head. In consequence and accompanying hominid evolution, which caused a partially freeing up from strong drives, organizing the world into a meaningful consistent and dynamic framework of interacting subsystems was necessary to integrate and orientate the human lifeworld within changing natural ecospheres. The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the "Ancestral Puebloans," a group of ancient people. I don't know how they could have possibly done that.. U.S. "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. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. 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. Peter Whiteley, Chair, Dept. WIRED Media Group So the logs must have been carried by people, most likely along the wide roadways that linked this world. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Where to Watch and Stream - TV Guide The structures and ruins are protected from destruction and development and . Chaco Canyon, New Mexico - Home of Ancestral Puebloans They describe the deliberate action of their ancestors to seal off the buildings and these aspects of their past. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon | PBS 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. Arch 226 assign 2.docx - 1.The purpose of the construction The ancient Anasazi built Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, but now the area is stalked by shape-shifting creatures and visited by time travelers who left behind a mysterious artifact. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. One such road, the Great North Road, connects the central canyons ceremonial buildings across 35 miles of desert to a steep badlands canyon in the North a direction of profound significance to descendant Pueblo people. Director Anna Sofaer Writers Matt Dibble Anna Sofaer Stars Paul Pino Robert Redford (voice) Anna Sofaer See production, box office & company info Watch on Prime Video included with Prime More watch options Add to Watchlist googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); }); Rodger Kram, associate professor emeritus of integrative physiology, and James Wilson, then an undergraduate studying biochemistry, spent the summer of 2020 training for an impressive test of endurance: Together, they carried a ponderosa pine log weighing more than 130 pounds for 15 miles up and down a forest road in Boulder County, Coloradoand they did it using only their heads in a technique inspired, in part, by sherpas in Nepal. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were used by the Chacoan builders to unite with a cosmic order. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon It fits with all the evidence: they used tumplines, they made the roads very wide, Kram said. 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. Archaeologists have long been puzzled as to how the ancestral Puebloans managed to carry those heavy building materials that far - as much 60 miles away. minimum distance between toilet and shower. 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. 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. More information: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Everybody else who was hiking there scratched their head and asked us what the heck we were doing, Kram recalled. The site remains one of the most important . However, Kram et al. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no Music by Michael Stearns. Scientists may have solved a Chaco Canyon mystery by hauling logs with 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. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The average logs that were carried to build these great houses at Chaco were about 16 feet long, so I multiplied it by 16, he said. In a new study, several researchers at CUBoulder reenacted a small part of a trek that people in what is today the SouthwestUnited States may have made more than 1,000 years ago. "Maybe the best way is to do it yourself.. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . Located 72 miles south of Farmington, Chaco Canyon contains the largest collection of ruins in Northwestern New Mexico. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID, Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads," said Kram, who is a passionate runner in his free time. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (Home Video Version) 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. 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." Written by Anna Sofaer and Matt Dibble. Pueblo Bonito, a Chaco Canyon "Great House," once spanned hundreds of rooms and was several stories tall. He and Wilson werent trying to start a new exercise fad. For years, archaeologists believed that the 16-foot-long timbers transported long distances to Chaco Canyon weighed about 600 pounds. These achievements emerged a thousand years ago in the exceptionally demanding environment of New Mexicos San Juan Basin. It's likely the best way to do it.. Chaco Canyon sits near the border between New Mexico and Colorado. 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. It is the summation of 20 years of research. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON presents new discoveries about the intricateastronomical knowledge of an ancient Pueblo Indian people, ancestors of todays Pueblopeople. Ever since she discovered the Sun Dagger, Anna Sofaer and her Solstice Project team of researchers have been exploring the enigmas posed by the massive prehistoric ruins in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The EDUCATIONAL version has an accompanying Teachers Study Guide. "As these guys showed, you don't have to be super trained to carry a log," he said. The so-called "great houses" of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico may have taken decades or longer to construct. The content is provided for information purposes only. Produced by The Solstice Project. All rights reserved. Jennifer Ouellette When stars align: The mysteries of Chaco Canyon | Pasatiempo 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. To test that hypothesis, co-authors Rodger Kram and James Wilson spent the summer of 2020 training until they could haul a heavy log some 15 miles using tumplines. 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. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. It proved worthwhile, though, because their efforts helped prove that the multiple-tumpline method was viable. These straps, which sherpas, or native mountain peoples of Nepal, still widely use today, loop over the top of the head. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder may have solved a 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery: How did ancient ancestral Puebloans transport heavy building materials to Chaco Canyon, one of the Southwests most important archaeological sites? PDF The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - solsticeproject.org Murphy said it's not uncommon to see lights moving among the ruins or to hear sounds coming from parts of the canyon.. Newresearch helps explain why. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. "Some people baked sourdough bread during COVID, Instead, we carried sand and heavy logs around using our heads," said Kram, who is a passionate runner in his free time. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Solstice Project Jen has worked at KPBS since 2000. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). Join this. The actual demonstration was to try and walk a long distance carrying 66 pounds per person, walking side by side, Kram said. The astonishing discovery of an ancient celestial calendar in Chaco Canyon,, Tells the story of three indigenous communities and the land they struggle, An in-depth portrait of Edward S. Curtis, the preeminent photographer, 2023 Docuseek, LLCAll rights reserved | Privacy Statement | Accessibility Statement, astronomy, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico,; cosmology, Pueblo Bonito,; Robert Redford, architecture, solstice, sun, moon, petroglyphs, native americans, sun dagger, lunar cycle, equinox, celestial calendar, archaeology, Anasazi, Hopi, archaeology, art history, architecture,"The Mystery of Chaco Canyon",Bullfrog Films,doc; history; science; religion. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon | haydenwalling 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? He and Wilson, who was then an undergraduate in biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder, read up on the properties of dried wood and published their conclusions last year. Existing customers, please log in to view this film. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Riddle Of The Ancient Sarcophagus And Its Strange Properties Can Science Solve This Mystery? These and other bizarre encounters suggest the park may be a portal between our world and distant star system. The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, revealing that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings oriented in a complex celestial pattern throughout this vast desert region. Dibble, Matt (screenwriter). 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. CNMN Collection Astronomical analysis of 10th to 12th century A.D. cultural evidence at Chaco Canyon New Mexico began in the 1970s. Cosmographic concepts of the world edifice can be regarded as holistic, multi-layered models of evolving human ecosystems, which, by using symbolic language, helped man making the world homely and transcending the profane. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. That changed the calculation significantly when determining how many people would have been needed to carry the timbers 60-70 miles. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. In dialogue and narrative, one deeply feels that Chaco is haunted, magical. 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. Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder, "I cut a 1-foot-long section of pine and weighed it on my bathroom scale," said Kram, who lives on a wooded property in the hills west of Boulder. But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. video produced and directed by Anna Sofaer. I've heard people say: That's our church. I also felt that the place had been meant only for a certain time and a specific purpose, which thought was echoed at the end of the film.