Anna Sofaer

Anna Sofaer, was working on a project to document petroglyphs around Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. She just happened to be on Fajada Butte in late June when she noticed a dramatic phenomenon; sunlight coming between two rock slabs made a dramatic image, a “sun dagger”, that crossed the center of a petroglyph on the day of the summer solstice.

This book is a collection of papers discussing the “sun dagger” and other astronomical phenomena related to Chacoan culture. Sofaer is the principal author on all the papers, which originally appeared in a variety of scientific and archaeological journals. Sofaer and her coauthors claim to have found astronomical alignments at various Chacoan sites related to the solstice sunrises and sunsets and lunar major and minor stillstands (moonrise or moonset at the furthest north or south positions). Other than the “sun dagger” petroglyph and a few related petroglyphs, the alignments are defined by walls in various Chacoan sites, or diagonals from one corner of the site to the opposite.

There’s some controversy about all this -little is noted in the papers. The slabs defining the “sun dagger” have shifted since their discovery, so the phenomenon is no longer as dramatic. Tourism is blamed, but I wonder how the slabs maintained their positioning over the millennia if tourists shifted things that much in a few years. I also wonder about the various proposed alignments; although the Chacoans were skillful builders their level of technology dictated that walls aren’t that straight and corners aren’t that sharp; a little wishful thinking on the surveys could generate alignments that weren’t really intended.

Still, though, it’s pretty clear that Mesoamerican cultures were fairly adept at astronomy, and that they had contacts with the Chacoans, so I suppose it’s possible. Certainly worth more research.… (plus d'informations)

Of all of the enduring mysteries in North America, Chaco Canyon stands as silent witness to a vast and complex culture that supported extremely complex astronomical alignments and many other unexplained enigmas. The Sun Dagger is interesting, but the Lunar alignments are filled with the deepest mysteries…Over 7000 discreet observations of the lunar cycle or over 250 full moons are required for a repeat of the Major Standstill… How many repeats before a pattern became obvious? Fajada Butte http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajada_Butte
at Chaco was not the only Lunar Calendar. Chimney Rock in Colorado
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_Rock_National_Monument
captures this event in a totally different manner…

Chaco Astronomy opens the first page on one of the great stories in pre- Columbian America…The questions raised by these discoveries are more important than those answered…The best type of book to have!… (plus d'informations)