The Solstice Project

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SOLSTICE PROJECT INVITATION: THE GREAT NORTH ROAD

We want to celebrate and share with you as key supporters of our latest efforts to record and preserve the achievements of Chaco culture of New Mexico.

Please join us June 4 and 5 in Farmington for presentations of our new research in progress on the Great North Road* of the Chaco culture and for visits to the road. See below the announcement of the grant that we recently received from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to conduct this research. For these two days, we will be joined by Pueblo and Navajo educators, archaeologists and remote sensing specialists.

On Friday evening (6/4), we will be showing the aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) imagery of the Great North Road that we recently conducted with our grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We will view the imaging with archaeologists who know the road from in-depth studies over several decades. Members of our advisory group will also present on the bigger picture of Chaco roads, on roads as expressions of other ancient American cultures, and on roads as significant symbolic expressions of Pueblo and Navajo cultures who have affiliation with Chaco.

The next day, Saturday (6/5), archaeologist Mike Marshall, who has authored numerous papers on Chaco roads and sites, will lead a visit to three portions of the road. He will be joined by archaeologist Rich Friedman who brought to our attention the great effectiveness of LiDAR in documenting the Chaco roads and who also has conducted two decades of research on the Chaco roads.

We would be delighted if you could join us for this sharing of our latest research.

June 4 at The Best Western

5:00 pm: Reception

6:00 pm: Presentations

LiDAR Imaging of the Great North Road and other material on Chaco roads and ancient roads of the Americas.

June 5:

Leave 7:30 am for a day of visiting segments and features of the Great North Road: at Kutz Canyon, Carsons Ridge and Pierre’s Complex.

RSVP by Monday, May 24.

You can reserve a room for the 4th at the Best Western at our Sosltice Project 10% discount calling before May 20.

Solstice Project Awarded National Trust Preservation Fund Grant

The Solstice Project is honored to announce it has just received a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant. Following a rigorous selection process, the grant was awarded to the Solstice Project as an organization whose research shares the National Trust for Historic Preservation mission of “actively working to protect and preserve the important places that tell the story of America.”

The NTHP grant will support the Solstice Project’s proposal to do aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) of the Great North Road of the Chaco culture. LiDAR technology has proved far more effective in detecting subtle archaeological features than any earlier aerial imaging. Currently LiDAR is revealing ancient Mayan sites and roads in Mexico as well as ancient features of the American Southeast. The Solstice Project study will provide critical data for further ground research and for urgently needed management and protection of this fragile resource. The Chaco cultural region is undergoing intense energy extraction and exploration. Modern energy roads and facilities are an increasing threat to the ancient Chaco roads.

The significance of the Great North Road, and the Chaco roads in general, has challenged contemporary interpretations: Chacoan people invested massive efforts – without the use of the wheel or draft animals -- to develop roads for apparently non-utilitarian purposes. Research to date suggests that the roads may have been primarily symbolic and ritual expressions conceived with topographic and astronomical orientation. There are hundreds of Chaco roads, rigorously straight, some up to 65 miles in length, dispersed throughout the Chaco cultural region of 70,000 square miles. Many do not connect buildings with resources or with other buildings, but rather with topographic features that are marked with shrines or with ritual architecture.

The Great North Road appears to have been developed to relate Chaco Canyon to the direction North and a badlands canyon thirty five miles north of the canyon. There it descends a steep slope, where a stairway and ceremonially broken pots were found. In its course of connecting the center of the Chaco culture with the North, the road is elaborately expressed -- in certain areas as two and four parallel routes. In the traditions of Pueblo and Navajo people, who have cultural affiliation with Chaco, roads have great symbolic siginificance.

These Chaco roads, regarded as anomalies within the modern concept of roads, have remained under-documented, understudied and unprotected. This project will stimulate further research and preservation efforts for these fragile features and this critically important legacy of the Chacoan culture and cosmology.

* SEE our paper “The Great North Road: A Cosmographic Expression of the Chaco Culture of New Mexico” by A. Sofaer, M Marshall and R. Sinclair in World Archaeoastronomy; and our film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon for its presentation of the Great North Road.


About theSolstice Project I Films I Book I Sun Dagger Model I For Educators I Research Papers I Teaching/Events I Preservation I LInks I Contact Us
SOLSTICE PROJECT INVITATION: THE GREAT NORTH ROAD We want to celebrate and share with you as key supporters of our latest efforts to record and preserve the achievements of Chaco culture of New Mexico. Please join us June 4 and 5 in Farmington for presentations of our new research in progress on the Great North Road* of the Chaco culture and for visits to the road. See below the announcement of the grant that we recently received from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to conduct this research. For these two days, we will be joined by Pueblo and Navajo educators, archaeologists and remote sensing specialists. On Friday evening (6/4), we will be showing the aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) imagery of the Great North Road that we recently conducted with our grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We will view the imaging with archaeologists who know the road from in-depth studies over several decades. Members of our advisory group will also present on the bigger picture of Chaco roads, on roads as expressions of other ancient American cultures, and on roads as significant symbolic expressions of Pueblo and Navajo cultures who have affiliation with Chaco. The next day, Saturday (6/5), archaeologist Mike Marshall, who has authored numerous papers on Chaco roads and sites, will lead a visit to three portions of the road. He will be joined by archaeologist Rich Friedman who brought to our attention the great effectiveness of LiDAR in documenting the Chaco roads and who also has conducted two decades of research on the Chaco roads. We would be delighted if you could join us for this sharing of our latest research. June 4 at The Best Western 5:00 pm: Reception 6:00 pm: Presentations LiDAR Imaging of the Great North Road and other material on Chaco roads and ancient roads of the Americas. June 5: Leave 7:30 am for a day of visiting segments and features of the Great North Road: at Kutz Canyon, Carsons Ridge and Pierre’s Complex. RSVP by Monday, May 24. You can reserve a room for the 4th at the Best Western at our Sosltice Project 10% discount calling before May 20. Solstice Project Awarded National Trust Preservation Fund Grant The Solstice Project is honored to announce it has just received a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant. Following a rigorous selection process, the grant was awarded to the Solstice Project as an organization whose research shares the National Trust for Historic Preservation mission of “actively working to protect and preserve the important places that tell the story of America.” The NTHP grant will support the Solstice Project’s proposal to do aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) of the Great North Road of the Chaco culture. LiDAR technology has proved far more effective in detecting subtle archaeological features than any earlier aerial imaging. Currently LiDAR is revealing ancient Mayan sites and roads in Mexico as well as ancient features of the American Southeast. The Solstice Project study will provide critical data for further ground research and for urgently needed management and protection of this fragile resource. The Chaco cultural region is undergoing intense energy extraction and exploration. Modern energy roads and facilities are an increasing threat to the ancient Chaco roads. The significance of the Great North Road, and the Chaco roads in general, has challenged contemporary interpretations: Chacoan people invested massive efforts – without the use of the wheel or draft animals -- to develop roads for apparently non-utilitarian purposes. Research to date suggests that the roads may have been primarily symbolic and ritual expressions conceived with topographic and astronomical orientation. There are hundreds of Chaco roads, rigorously straight, some up to 65 miles in length, dispersed throughout the Chaco cultural region of 70,000 square miles. Many do not connect buildings with resources or with other buildings, but rather with topographic features that are marked with shrines or with ritual architecture. The Great North Road appears to have been developed to relate Chaco Canyon to the direction North and a badlands canyon thirty five miles north of the canyon. There it descends a steep slope, where a stairway and ceremonially broken pots were found. In its course of connecting the center of the Chaco culture with the North, the road is elaborately expressed -- in certain areas as two and four parallel routes. In the traditions of Pueblo and Navajo people, who have cultural affiliation with Chaco, roads have great symbolic siginificance. These Chaco roads, regarded as anomalies within the modern concept of roads, have remained under-documented, understudied and unprotected. This project will stimulate further research and preservation efforts for these fragile features and this critically important legacy of the Chacoan culture and cosmology. * SEE our paper “The Great North Road: A Cosmographic Expression of the Chaco Culture of New Mexico” by A. Sofaer, M Marshall and R. Sinclair in World Archaeoastronomy; and our film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon for its presentation of the Great North Road.