On June 29, 1977, Anna Sofaer and Jay Crotty were assigned to record petroglyphs on the 400 high Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
“Late in the afternoon [of June 28], when we reached the top, we saw a large spiral petroglyph carved on the cliff face behind three large rock slabs. The spiral was deeply shadowed so we decided to return the next morning when there would be more light for our photographing. We happened to reach the site close to noontime, eight days from summer solstice, at the very moment that a “dagger” of light was bisecting the spiral.”
For thirty years Sofaer and others have studied the site, and this book contains the results of their research. “The papers reveal that the people of Chaco, a culture that thrived in the arid San Juan Basin from A.D. 850 to 1130, developed an elaborate commemoration of the cycles of the sun and the moon. The Chaco people expressed this commemoration through the alignments of magnificent multistoried buildings, through the orientation of the Great North Road, and by numerous seasonal sunlight and lunar shadow markings on petroglyphs.”
The papers make fascinating reading, much like a detective story, where new information enhances and sometimes contradicts earlier theories. At the same time, the earth moves; the early sharply formed and slender “dagger” has become more irregular over the years, apparently because the earth at the base of the projecting slabs has lowered up to 25 cm between 1978 and 1989.
In 2006, a large team produced an interactive computer graphics model that replicates the astronomical functioning of the calendar. A number of black and white photos and charts and drawings nicely illustrate the text.
Anna Sofaer was instrumental in creating “the Solstice Project, a non-profit group, organized in 1978 to study, document, and preserve the remarkable Sun Dagger – a celestial calendar of the ancient Pueblo Indians. It continues to study other achievements of ancient Southwestern cultures.” The Project’s website is rich with supplemental information about the Chaco site. A summary of key developments at Chaco taken from the website appear in the first Comment.
The Project produced “The Sun Dagger,” an hour-length film documenting the Sun Dagger site. A second DVD narrated by Robert Redford was released by Bullfrog Films and the Project as The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Both are available at the Project’s website.
The book, the website and the film tell a fascinating story, and best of all one can hike through much of the area and see for themselves what the Anasazi Indians created here. 50 Hikes in Northern New Mexico: From Chaco Canyon to the High Peaks of the Sangre de Cristos is an excellent choice to lead your footsteps through the canyon.
Robert C. Ross 2008
Anna Sofaer found the now-famous “Sun Dagger” petroglyph site on a desert butte high above Chaco Culture National Historical Park at Summer Solstice in 1977, leading to 30 years research into the meaning of ancient Chaco’s astonomical expressions. Ch. read more.
