"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.". "It was just debilitating," Kram said. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018). Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is one of those extraordinary gems and an excellent example of ArchaeoAstronomy. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. Shining light on the astronomical brilliance of the austere civilization of Chaco Canyon Narrated by Robert Redford . Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. CNMN Collection Stephen Lekson, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder, "The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico", Rina Swentzell, Architect, Santa Clara Pueblo, News study outlines air pollution from Tijuana sewage, Art Show: 'The Possibility of Something Happening', Current rainy season could be a drought buster, forecaster says, Settlement reached in Tijuana sewage lawsuit, Brittney Griner urges the return of U.S. detainees abroad at NAACP Image Awards, Washington state attorney general says FDA rules on abortion drug are unreasonable, An Arizona driver is in custody after crashing into bicycling group, killing 2, How Cardiff's new farmers market may help keep small farms in business, San Diego officials work to stop elephant poaching. The content is provided for information purposes only. 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. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. 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. 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. The two made three round trips over the course of the day. 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. University of Colorado Boulder Regents of the University of Colorado 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. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon reveals that, instead, Chaco was a complex ceremonial center with extraordinary astronomical alignments of buildings and roads. It appears that they served instead as centers of great spiritual power. That changed the calculation significantly when determining how many people would have been needed to carry the timbers 60-70 miles. 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. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon was once the center of the most influential culture in the American Southwest. But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. Aerial and time lapse footage, computer modeling, and interviews with scholars show how the Chacoan culture designed, oriented and located its major buildings in relationship to the sun and moon. James Wilson, left, and Rodger Kram, right, use tumplines to carry a log weighing more than 130 pounds in Boulder's Chautauqua Park. 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. Adjust the colors to reduce glare and give your eyes a break. Joan Mathien, Archaeologist, National Park Service'I rate this video a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in southwestern prehistory.' It proved worthwhile, though, because their efforts helped prove that the multiple-tumpline method was viable. 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. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. It's likely the best way to do it.. Chaco Canyon - Pueblo Bonito So there is lots of mystery surrounding Chaco Canyon. "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.". Pueblo Bonito, a Chaco Canyon "Great House," once spanned hundreds of rooms and was several stories tall. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Lecture: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no 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. 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. Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors. Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoan people, regard Chaco as a place where their ancestors lived in a sacred past. They attempted their final test on a forest road leading to Gross Reservoir southwest of Boulder, carrying the timber using tumplines on either end. Sofaer, Anna (screenwriter) Keep up with all the latest news, arts and culture, and TV highlights from KPBS. 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. 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. Dibble, Matt (screenwriter). Learn more about our captivating exploration of ancient astronomy in the American Southwest, directed by the Solstice Project founder Anna Sofaer and narrated by Robert Redford. 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., Peeking out of adoorway inside Pueblo Bonito. Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. 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. Watch The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Full Movie IN HD Visit :: https://primeflixz.xyz/watch/tt0273858 Tlcharger : - https://primeflixz.xyz/watch/tt0273858 Thi. University of Colorado at Boulder. The irritation paid off. June 12, 2022 . 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. The site remains one of the most important . The teaching materials in the Guide are designed to be used with the film THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON. The duo wanted to find out if such a journey would be possible. 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. I've heard people say, 'That's our church. The mountains are the most sacred places for the descendant Din and Pueblo peoples. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103876, Provided by It beckons night sky tourists with its spectacular treasures. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. This documentary examines the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, built between 850 and 1150 A.D. in northwest New Mexico. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoan people, regard Chaco as a place where their ancestors lived in a sacred past. (Credit: NPS). the mystery of chaco canyon transcript. Kram rewrote history when he published a paper showing the Chaco logs were actually much lighter, weighing closer to 200 pounds. 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. The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. Music by Michael Stearns. That means my focus is building relationships and telling stories from under-covered pockets of Colorado. Hundreds of mysterious, ancient structures haunt this canyon and the entire region, meticulously aligned along the paths of the Sun, Moon, and constellation Orion. 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? 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 . 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). "As these guys showed, you don't have to be super trained to carry a log," he said. The planned Thacker Pass lithium mine in remote northern Nevada has drawn protests and a lawsuit from local tribes. Tumplines are hardly a new innovation. 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 sample of Chacoan Great Houses assessed for astronomical associations was unchanged from the mid 1990s to 2007. The SSE orientation tradition continued during the peak of Bonito Phase construction activity (A.D. 1020-1100). 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. 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. Additional manual findings using NVDA screen reader 1. Riddle Of The Ancient Sarcophagus And Its Strange Properties Can Science Solve This Mystery? Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say they may have solved this 1,000-year-old supply chain mystery. Privacy Legal & Trademarks Campus Map. - Feb 24, 2023 9:00 pm UTC. Lekson suggests that much of what we believe about the ancient Southwest should be radically revised. An enduring mystery from the great houses of Chaco Canyon is the origin of more than 240,000 construction timbers. They built "Great Houses," which were as much as four stories tall and contained hundreds of rooms. Since time immemorial and across the world archaic cultures symbolically, mythically, and ritually accompanied the configuration and weighting of the habitat as well as the placement within. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex . The astronomical evidence presented supports the idea that people with at least three distinct cosmological intents collaborated at Chaco; it also supports Van Dykes hypothesis that Late Bonito phase construction at Chaco represented an attempt by a weakened ritual elite to reinvigorate their legitimacy and power. A new explanation of the mystery is emerging. The team's findings show that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. The halo Great House at Bis saani includes a cardinal North-South and East-West (NS/EW) structure, a possible SSE-facing room block, and a June solstice sunrise horizon foresight. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern . It was a long, hard day.. Chaco is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. What Does The Brain Of The Homo Erectus Fossil With The Lowest Cranial Capacity Tell About Evolution? We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. 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. Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request. Contemporary Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Chacoans, speak in the film of the spiritual significance of Chaco in their world today. In the center of America's Four Corners Region, Chaco Canyon is an arid, desolate place, sprinkled with the occasional, lonely juniper tree, cactus, or sage bush. part may be reproduced without the written permission. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy Educational documentaries Follow Browse more videos Playing next 55:42 The Mystery of Chaco Canyon Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy Educational documentaries 0:32 Sacred Tattoos of Thailand: Unveiling the Magic, Power and Mystery of Thailand's Ancient Tattoos The duo and their colleagues described their experiment Feb. 22 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. They first tried carrying a log on their shoulders. 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 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? Millions of years of history reveal . THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON presents new discoveries about the intricateastronomical knowledge of an ancient Pueblo Indian people, ancestors of todays Pueblopeople. They used a log that weighed 132 pound. Peter Whiteley, Chair, Dept. These timbers brought pieces of the sacred mountains to Chaco Canyon.. Most of the putative lunar standstill and June solstice sunrise alignments comprise a subset of this SSE facing group. 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. See production, box office & company info, Self - Laguna Pueblo Council member - this is not the same Paul Pino in your database, The Extraordinary Tale of William Buckley: The great untold story of Australia's Robinson Crusoe, Australia's Lost Gold: The Legend of Lasseter. It seemed unrealistically high to him. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. These achievements emerged a thousand years ago in the exceptionally demanding environment of New Mexicos San Juan Basin. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon - Ritterbush - 2001 - American Anthropologist - Wiley Online Library Skip to Article Content Skip to Article Information 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. This film describes and demonstrates the intricate and precise astronomical alignments among the many buildings spread over a wide desert area. Engineered roads stretch across dozens of miles in straight lines to significant landforms, but with little evidence of travel or trade. 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 Late Bonito calendrical Great Houses may have been intended as pilgrimage destinations where people could witness a dramatic solstice sunrise or sunset. 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. The Mystery of Chaco Canyon and The Sun Dagger are available for HOME use and for EDUCATIONAL use. Your feedback is important to us. Existing customers, please log in to view this film. CU Boulder Today is created by Strategic Relations and Communications. 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. 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? Between approximately 800 A.D. and 1100 A.D., the ancient Chacoans built settlements . But how this society got its construction supplies has been a long-standing mystery. The activities in the Guide are primarily for grade-levels 5-12, although they also may be useful to college students. 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. 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. Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6vhwh3rTB0rmu6mN9bj3A/joinMAD HISTORY .. HISTORY has no sides, no opinions no rig. That astonished CU Boulder Integrative Physiology Professor Rodger Kram. We chose a forest road up here in the foothills and outside of Nederland and we walked up and down this darn road. New to Docuseek? Astronomical analysis of 10th to 12th century A.D. cultural evidence at Chaco Canyon New Mexico began in the 1970s. 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. For more information, contact Bullfrog Films, Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 1-800-543-FROG . The documentary is very well done, but its the PLACE thats the subject here. Scientists may have solved a Chaco Canyon mystery by hauling logs with their heads James Wilson, left, and Rodger Kram, right, use tumplines to carry a log weighing more than 130 pounds in Boulder's Chautauqua Park. Kram got interested in Chaco Canyon several years ago. They help porters to support weight using the bones of their neck and spine rather than their muscles. video produced and directed by Anna Sofaer. So how did the ancestral Puebloans manage it? The team's findings show that the key to this testament to human labor may have been simple devices called tumplines. 1.The purpose of the construction of the Fajada Butte calendar. 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. "We feel that it is dubious to infer Chaco era timber transportation methods from a staged 20th century image," they wrote. To make sure they were being safe, Kram and Wilson started with light loads and worked their way up, said Joseph Carzoli, a study co-author and certified strength and conditioning coach. 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. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. Chaco Canyon is a famous archaeological area in the American Southwest. 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. 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. See page 43 of attached scanned book. It should be mentioned that archaeological work at Chaco Canyon had a significant contribution to the film. Abstract. These elaborate roads and kivas aren't visible to the naked eye or even through aerial photography. "It's just a dumb way to carry a heavy object.". 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). 56 minutes, color. 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. World Archaeological Congress Handbook Series. 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.. He and Wilson decided to read everything they could about the properties of dried wood. The Mystery of Chaco Canyoncontinues to impact and inform audiences in significant ways; 800 K-12 schools and colleges have purchased copies ofThe Mystery of Chaco Canyonto teach about the remarkable archaeoastronomy of the ancient Pueblo people of Chaco.