 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| All material on this site is © The Solstice Project | ||||||||||
TEACHING/EVENTS
EVENTS
May 15, 2011
Anna Sofaer and Rich Friedman discuss
New Insights into Chaco Roads with New Technology
at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, CO.
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and the Anasazi Heritage Center co-sponsored this presentation, part of the Four Corners Lecture Series. Sofaer and Friedman discussed new technology – LiDAR (aerial laser scanning) – which they used to detect and record the subtle, and vanishing, features of sections of the Chacoan Great North Road. They shared their thoughts on the significance and possible purposes for the vast network of Chacoan roads, how their research sheds new light on this understudied aspect of Chacoan culture and how the research may, in fact, aid in the archival preservation of sections of the roads.
May 13, 2011
Interview with Chacoan Researcher Anna Sofaer by Tom Yoder on "Zines" at KSJD Public Radio in Southwest Colorado
Anna Sofaer talks about her research on the Ancestral Puebloan archaeology of Chaco Canyon and the latest studies on the Chacoan roads system. Download the interview from KSJD.
January 3, 2011
Talks at Southwest Seminars: Rich Friedman on "the Chacoan Great North "Road" LiDAR project" and Ana Sofaer on "Ancient Chacoan Roads: New Aerial Technology provides new Insights"
June 2010
The Great North Road Presentations: The Solstice Project presented talks in Farmington, New Mexico on our new research in progress on the Great North Road.
PAST EVENTS
US Naval Observatory Colloquium on Thursday, January 21, 2010
SPEAKERS: Anna Sofaer (Solstice Project, NM), Alan Price (ACCAD, OSU),
and Richard Friedman (City of Farmington, NM)TITLE: "Archaeoastronomy of the Chaco Culture of New Mexico: Research 1978-2010"
This presentation showed documentation (1978-87) of the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, a celestial calendar site created by the ancestral Pueblo culture between approximately 900 and 1100 AD. Three large stone slabs stand upright against a cliff near the top of Fajada Butte. The openings between the slabs cast light and shadow markings onto two spiral petroglyphs on the cliff wall. At 11:15 AM. on the summer solstice a dagger-shaped light pattern pierces the larger of the two spirals (1). Similar light patterns mark the winter solstice and the equinoxes. At one extreme in the moon's 18.6 year standstill cycle (the lunar minor standstill), a shadow bisects the larger spiral just as the moon rises; and at its other extreme, nine-and-a-third years later (the lunar major standstill), the shadow of the rising moon falls on the left edge of the larger spiral. In each case these shadows align with pecked grooves (2, 3).
In the 1980's the National Park Service closed access to the butte following documentation of damage and erosion at the Sun Dagger site due to excessive visitation. This presentation will show a digital restoration of the site completed in 2006 by the Solstice Project through laser scanning and with the computer design by Alan Price. This computer model accurately replicates the slabs, their environs, and the astronomical functioning of the site. With extensive interactive research tools it also serves as a model for research of the site's solar and lunar markings and its geometric relationships, yielding insights to the site's original development (4).
With the assistance of the National Geodetic Survey, in the 1990s the Solstice Project conducted a geodetic survey of the Chacoans' primary architecture. This survey revealed that twelve major Chaco buildings are oriented to the sun or the moon. In addition, the study showed that the internal geometries of the major buildings incorporate solar-lunar relationships. It also showed that the Chacoans organized their primary architecture in a complex regional pattern, with astronomical and probably religious implications (5).
In addition, the Solstice Project's study of the Great North Road, a thirty-five mile engineered road, suggested that it was probably developed by the Chacoans as a "cosmographic expression." This road extends north from the central architectural complex of Chaco Canyon to a badlands canyon. The Project's research revealed no evidence of utilitarian purpose to the road. Instead it appears that it was built by the Chacoans to commemorate the direction north and distinctive topographic features in the north, a most sacred direction in the traditions of the Pueblo people. [6] This presentation will show new evidence of Chaco roads uncovered by the use of LiDAR and describe the Project's efforts to expand LiDAR imaging of the Chaco roads, believed to number in the hundreds. The roads have been minimally documented and are endangered by rapidly expanding energy development in the region of the Chaco culture.
Teaching with Kirby Gchachu and Students from the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in 2006
Photos by Katherine Mitchell and Kirby Gchachu
Anna Sofaer shows how tracking shadows cast by a stick could have given astronomical directions to the Chacoans. No compass would be needed for the precise alignments of their buildings. From left: Jessie Gachupin, Jannalee Armstrong, Sonja Ashley, Warren Edaakie, Craig Lamy, Mike Daney, and Anna Sofaer
SIPI students study the beautiful kiva of Pueblo Bonito and the precise cardinal alignments of its internal features. From left: Jessie Gachupin, Warren Edaakie, Bannon Lomahquahu, Shirley Piqosa
Anna Sofaer points out the north-south alignment of Pueblo Bonito's mid-wall (arrow) to the sun at solar noon each day The students will observe the wall as it casts no shadow at solar noon.
At Pueblo Bonito's great kiva, Kirby Gchachu, SIPI teacher (second from left) with his students. From left: Craig Lamy, Kirby Gchachu, Jannalee Armstrong, Bannon Lomahquahu, Sonja Ashley, Jessie Gachupin, Warren Edaakie, Shirley Piqosa.
2010
Sun Dagger Explorer at the Roundhouse, February 15, 2010, 9am to 3pm
As part of New Mexico Culture Day, the Solstice Project's Sun Dagger Explorer model was on view at NM State Capitol Building (The Round House) between 9 am and 3pm Monday Feb 15. This interactive model allows you to experience and view all the solar and lunar markings of the Sun Dagger site in replication of its natural setting. We are pleased that Chaco's astronomy has been so significantly honored.
To celebrate New Mexico Culture Day, museums and cultural institutions across the state set up displays on the East and West sides of the Roundhouse. The Natural History Museum installation of the Sun Dagger Explorer was just west of the Rotunda.
Book Signing event with Dennis Tedlock and his new book on Mayan Literature with an exhibit of related prints
January 9, 2010For information on the event click this link:
http://www.garciastreetbooks.com/january-events/tedlockDennis Tedlock, distinguished professor, world renowned Mayan authority, and part-time Santa Fe resident, will celebrate the publication of 2000 YEARS OF MAYAN LITERATURE with a book signing, talk, and exhibition/sale of fine prints, designed by the author and related to the book.
The signing and talk will take place at Garcia Street Books in Santa Fe on Saturday, January 9, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, and the exhibition will run from then through January 31. To see examples of the prints, use this web address: http://www.garciastreetbooks.com/tedlock
This lavishly illustrated book includes new translations of Mayan writings of all kinds, from hieroglyphic inscriptions to alphabetic works from the colonial period. The role of women as Mayan writers is revealed, and the astronomical meaning of the texts is demonstrated with star charts.
2009
Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting, Nov 18 2009
On Wednesday, November 18 at 1900, PTTI 2009 is pleased to have Ms. Anna Sofaer present a program on the Solstice Project. Ms. Sofaer is the founder and president of The Solstice Project, a non-profit group organized in 1978 and dedicated to the study of ancient cultures of the American Southwest.
Univerity of Colorado Lectures, October 23, 2009
Anna Sofaer gave two presentations: one at the University of Colorado Museum at noon and one at the Fiske Planetarium that evening, entitled 'More on the Mysteries of Chaco'.
Santa Fe Archaeological Society Lecture Monday, October 19, 2009
Speaker : Anna Sofaer, who discovered the “Sun Dagger” on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon while on a field trip in 1977. Since then
Anna has devoted herself into unraveling the mysteries of this Archaeological wonder. She has written and directed two films on the subject, /THE SUN DAGGER, /and /THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON/, both narrated by Robert Redford. Anna has also
written and collaborated in numerous scientific publications and authored a new book:/CHACO ASTRONOMY : AN ANCIENT AMERICAN COSMOLOGY./ She founded and is Current President and Director of the Solstice Project which is committed to research Preservation, and Education.
Anna’s lecture will use computer graphics and a digital restoration of Chacoan calendrical sites, providing new insights into the mysteries of Chaco
Canyon.
First museum installation of The Sun Dagger Explorer
an interactive computer model of the Sun Dagger site of Chaco Canyon
Opened May 15, 2009
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
1801 Mountain Road NW
Albuquerque,NM
The Sun Dagger Explorer will be for several years a component of
"Space Frontiers", an exhibit on the history of Astromony in New MexicoThe ancestral Pueblo people developed the Sun Dagger, a celestial calendar site near the top of Fajada Butte, approximately one thousand years ago. This Explorer model, based on recent laser scanning, precisely reproduces the Sun Dagger’s astronomical functioning in its recreated natural setting -- light markings, cast by three large slabs onto two spirals, that record the solar and lunar cycles.
The Sun Dagger Explorer’s interactive tools invite dynamic participation with the site. It allows people to move their view of the slabs, the spirals and the sun and moon to all perspectives. They can also see the site at any time in the solar and lunar cycles and in its 360 degree environs atop the butte. The user can even view simultaneously the sun’s or the moon’s motions through the sky and the creation of the light markings on the spirals. Exploration with this model evokes an appreciation of the profound complexity and beauty of the Sun Dagger site.
Accompanying the Explorer is a photographic display showing how the Chacoans also aligned their elaborate buildings to the sun and the moon. These architectural alignments -- although some are located at great distances from the canyon -- are to the same key positions of the solar and lunar cycles that the Chacoan commemorated in their light markings on Fajada Butte. The Chaco astronomers coordinated a vast cultural region in a shared astronomical harmony.
photo by Karl Kernberger
©the Solstice Project
2008
Solstice Project events spring 2008
In Celebration of the Solstice Project’s new book
CHACO ASTRONOMY, An Ancient American Cosmology
By Anna Sofaer and Contributors to the Solstice Project
At the occassions listed below, Anna Sofaer and her colleagues spoke, in some cases with a screening of the Project’s film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, and at others, showing its new interactive computer graphics model of the Sun Dagger site.Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology
by Anna SofaerSaturday, May 24th, 2008 - 7:00 PM
Page One Bookstore
11018 Montgomery NE
Albuquerque, NMHigh on a butte in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon at summer solstice in 1977, researcher Anna Sofaer encountered an astonishing phenomenon—a single shaft of light bisecting a spiral petroglyph, crafted long ago by the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people. Her recognition of its significance led to thirty years of research that has revealed extensive astronomical expressions in Chaco’s architecture and art. These efforts by Sofaer with numerous colleagues in archaeology and astronomy, and with Native scholars, developed a revolutionary view of Chaco as a center of complex cosmology.
Sofaer’s book and the research work of the Santa Fe-based Solstice Project, “shape a startling new conception of Chaco Canyon as a pilgrimage center, its buildings largely symbolic, locked with Mesoamerica into one grand cosmological order,” according to the architectural historian Vincent Scully, Yale Sterling Professor Emeritus.
Ms. Sofaer will be giving a presentation on her findings, as well as showing portions of a the Soltice Project's film "The Mystery of Chaco Canyon," before signing books at Page One in Albuquerque.Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology
by Anna Sofaer
a book discussion
Saturday, April 19, 2008 - 11:00 AM
Smithsonian - National Museum of the American Indian
Rooms 4018-19 (Fourth level)
Washington, D.C.The Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon - A Digital Model
Thursday, March 6th - 7pm
Bradbury Science Museum
15th and Central Streets
Los Alamos, NM 87544Anna Sofaer and Alan Price will present the Solstice Project's Interactive Digital Model of the Sun Dagger site.
Representing 20 years of research and three years in production, the model is an archival restoration of a thousand year old calendrical site of Chaco Canyon that marks the solar and lunar cycles. The model’s interactive tools offer opportunities to analyze astronomical functioning of the site and to explore how it was originally developed.At the Sun Dagger site, the Chacoan people commemorated the cycles of the sun and the moon in light patterns cast by rock slabs onto spiral rock carvings. Through state of the art technologies and with an outstanding team of photogrammatrists, a geodecist and computer modelers, the Solstice Project achieved its goal of archival digital restoration of the site. (In 1989, the Project found that the rock slabs had shifted and the light markings on the petroglyphs had been significantly disturbed.)
The interactive capability of this computer model offers dynamic opportunities for scientific exploration of the site. One can navigate around the 3- D model, observing it from any angle, set the calendar date and time of day for positioning the sun and moon, projecting shadows of the stone slabs onto the cliff and spiral patterns in real time.
The slabs and the spirals can be adjusted in their positions and shapes. The student or scholar is in essence in the role of a Chacoan astronomer, testing the sensitivity of the elements of the site and assessing what actions may have been taken by the Chacoans to precisely mark the sun and the moon. In these images the model accurately replicates the summer solstice sun dagger. The colored lines indicate certain interactive movements that can be done with the model.The scholars behind the making of the Sun Dagger model over many years include:
Anna Sofaer, president of the Solstice Project has coordinated since 1978 the Project’s interdisciplinary astronomical research and preservation efforts with the Sun Dagger site. Their work included ongoing mapping and surveying efforts since 1979 to record the fragile slabs and spirals, as well as extensive photo documentation of the site’s solar and lunar markings. These efforts finally culminated in the precise digital restoration of the Sun Dagger in 2006.
Phillip Tuwalststiwa, a geodecist and member of the Hopi Tribe, gave his early support and participation in the model building at the Center for Mapping of Ohio State University.
James Holmlund, president of Western Mapping developed the laser-scanned model of the Sun Dagger site in 2006.
Andrew Piscitello, president of Aero-Metric Company, developed the 1984 photogametric model of the Sun Dagger site in 2006.
William Stone, National Geodetic Survey of NOAA, made a precise astronomical survey of the Sun Dagger site essential to the model’s accurate replication of its solar and lunar markings.
Alan Price, Associate Professor, the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, Ohio State University, tested the model with astronomical programs and created the interactive model with extensive research tools.
Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology A Presentation by Anna Sofaer
Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 7:00 pm Bradbury Science Museum
Central and 15th Street, Los AlamosSofaer will present new information from Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology, her groundbreaking 2008 book, at her lecture and demonstration at the Bradbury Science Museum on Thursday evening, February 21, from 7 to 8:30 pm. The book documents the Solstice Project’s research regarding the famous “Sun Dagger” site, lunar and solar alignments of the major Chaco buildings, and a religious function in the construction of the Great North Road.
Sofaer and her colleague Alan Price, a professor of computer technology at Ohio State University, will also present their remarkable digital reconstruction of the original Sun Dagger site on Fajada Butte. This model is an archival record of the Sun Dagger site and its astronomical functioning. They will show how the model, with its extensive interactive capability, allows experimental research of the site’s original development. The first part of the award winning documentary film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, narrated by Robert Redford, will also be shown.
Sofaer’s book and the research work of the Santa Fe-based Solstice Project, “shape a startling new conception of Chaco Canyon as a pilgrimage center, its buildings largely symbolic, locked with Mesoamerica into one grand cosmological order,” according to the architectural historian Vincent Scully, Yale Sterling Professor Emeritus.
Before her talk and presentation at the Bradbury Museum, Anna Sofaer will sign Chaco Astronomy at the nearby Otowi Station Bookstore, 1350 Central Avenue, from 5 to 7 pm.
Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology
“Voices in Science” Lecture by Anna Sofaer, Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 7:00 pm
Dynatheater, New Mexico Museum of Natural History
1801 Mountain Road N.W., AlbuquerqueIn a “Voices in Science” lecture at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, February 12, Sofaer will present new information from her 2008 book, Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology. This groundbreaking book documents the Solstice Project’s research regarding the “Sun Dagger” site, lunar and solar alignments of the major Chaco buildings, and a religious function in the construction of the Great North Road.
The Solstice Project’s remarkable digital reconstruction of the original Sun Dagger site on FajadaButte will also be shown. This model is an archival record of the Sun Dagger construction’s astronomical functioning and, with its extensive interactive capability, it allows in depth researchof the site’s original development.
Brian Vallo of the Acoma Pueblo, director of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Museum, will introduce Sofaer and will speak about the significance of Chaco in Pueblo history. Kirby Gchachuof Zuni Pueblo and Indigenous Science Instructor at SIPI, will also comment on Chaco and its cosmological expressions. Sofaer will sign her books following the presentation.
The lecture and presentation is co-sponsored by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Bookworks, and Ocean Tree Books. Admission: $2 public, $1 museum members, seniors, and students. Reservations recommended: call Chris Sanchez at 841-2872 or email chris.sanchez@state.nm.us
2007
Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology by Anna Sofaer
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 - 5:30 pm, CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe.In response to the overwhelming turnout for the Book Launch Event on Novemeber 12th, in which dozens of people were turned away for lack of space, Collected Works Bookstore and the CCA Cinematheque are hosting a second event December 12th.with a screening of the Solstice Project’s film “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon” Narrated by Robert Redford.
At 7:00 author Anna Sofaer and Special Guest Petuuche Gilbert of Acoma Pueblo will be available for a question and answer session, and to sign books. Wine and cheese will be served.
Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology by Anna Sofaer
Monday, November 12, 2007 - 5:30 pm, CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe.the Book Launch of Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology
by Anna Sofaer with a screening of the Solstice Project’s film “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon” Narrated by Robert Redford.At 7:30, following the film and a question and answer session, the author will sign books. Wine and cheese will be served.
Note: The Chaco works were wrought with the skills and knowledge that can only be found today in many different disciplines. It is no coincidence that the events where the Solstice Project has been invited to present its materials on Chaco astronomy involve such diverse professions as astronomy, architecture, education (of traditional and modern culture), geography and geodecy, archaeology and art.
The Chaco people integrated art, science and religion in their rich cosmological expressions. Today we are specialized and yet within each area of our interests we can broaden our understanding of what an integrated culture could accomplish as we view the Chacoan works for their unity of art, astronomy and architecture.
October 30, 2:00 pm
Southwest Users Group Conference, Santa Fe, NMAnna Sofaer will give the keynote address of the Southwest Users Group Conference at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. Geodisist and photographer William Stone, with Sofaer, will show the Solstice Project’s new interactive computer graphics model of the Sun Dagger site. They will discuss the history and process of developing the interactive model. There will also be a showing of The Mystery of Chaco Canyon.
www.swuggis.org
October 13, 7:30 pm
Chaco Culture National Historical ParkChaco Culture National Historical Park hosts a lecture by Anna Sofaer with a screening of The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. There will be a question and answer session following the film.
www.nps.gov/chcu/
Sept 19, 7:00 pm
CCA Film Theatre, Santa Fe, NM
The American Institute of Architects presents the Solstice Project’s film The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. A reception and a question and answer session with Anna Sofaer will follow the screening.
www.ccasantafe.org
September 14, 8:30 am
Taos, NMAnna Sofaer will give the Keynote address at the 1st Annual Southwest Night Sky Conference in Taos, New Mexico.
1:00 – 2:00 pm The Mystery of Chaco Canyon will screen with a question and answer session following the film.
www.nmheritage.org
All material on this site is © The Solstice Project
