Images and Thoughts about Astronomy
and Archaeoastronomy

Choose a category from our itinerary here, and click on any image below for a full-size image.
 
Acoma/El Malpais | El Morro/Chaco Arrival | Pueblo Bonito (Chaco) | Chaco Astronomy
Supernova Pictograph/Peñasco Blanco | Miscellaneous Images | Mesa Verde | Hovenweep

The Biggest Conflict Facing Pueblo Bonito   Today, about 90,000 people visit Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon each year. Our guide, Great Bear Cornucopia, who is Caucasian but was renamed by the area’s Indians as a sign of respect, told us that it was good that the ruins are open to the public, but that visitation is not good for preserving the site. As we were listening, a man sat on a wall. Great Bear said if he had his park ranger’s uniform on, he would have told the man not to sit there because he, and thousands of other people doing the same thing, would crack the mortar and cause the wall to deteriorate and someday fall. "He’s come, and he thinks he hasn’t done any damage, but he has," Great Bear said. – Lisandra Collazo   LEFT: Great Bear explains Pueblo Bonito to us.

The Construction of Pueblo Bonito   With nearly 800 rooms and 37 kivas, or sacred spaces, and up to five stories, Pueblo Bonito is one of the most magnificent ruins in Chaco Canyon. Pueblo Bonito was public building that took advance planning to build. The shape is unusual – a crescent. There are rooms within rooms and only one door into the structure at its southeast corner. The walls were made of three layers of stone. The core was roughly shaped pieces of sandstone laid in mud mortar. The two outer layers were selected shaped stones. Over top of the walls and roof a mud plaster was put on so that the structure would be protected from rain and wind. It has been excavated many times, making it the most excavated site in North America. Recently, the Park Service has tried to stabilize the walls with modern methods to help preserve the site. – Rachel Harmony   TOP: An overview of the inside of Pueblo Bonito looking south from the fallen Threatening Rock in the foreground. The round structures are the remains of kivas.   MIDDLE: Looking in the same direction, this is the back wall. Timber supports can be seen.   BOTTOM: This is part of the earliest construction that remains at Pueblo Bonito.

The History of Pueblo Bonito   Pueblo Bonito, or Beautiful Town, got its name from the Spaniards who came into the area in the 16th century. It was under construction from 850 to 1150 A.D. Its back wall was built during the latter stages of construction from 1040-1050 A.D. No one really knows how many people lived here, but it may have been 4,000 to 6,000, according to recently revised estimates. Little is known about the exact use of the complex, but it was probably ceremonial and may have been a pilgrimage site. People are buried within its walls. An archeologist found two six-foot men richly buried atop other people who were not so richly buried. The two men’s skulls were smashed, and scientists believe they were killed. American Lt. James Simpson and his military expedition found the site in 1849 and published a detailed description, beginning the site’s modern history of research and visitation. -- Samuel Hopkins   TOP: Ancient people may have approached Pueblo Bonito from all directions for ceremonies.   BOTTOM: The remains of a kiva, or sacred space, suggest the ceremonial nature of the site.

Archeoastronomy at Pueblo Bonito -- The Doorway and the Tree   There are seven doorways in the southeast wing of Pueblo Bonito. One of these, in a corner, allowed sun to enter through the doorway after Oct 13. In the weeks after that, the light shifts towards the corner of the room, and the shift each day could have been measured. By the winter solstice day, the doorway precisely illuminates a chimney-like structure in the room. That day was important for calendar-making and as an indicator it was time for an important ceremony. Another time marker may have been a Ponderosa pine, the only tree found inside the structure. The tree grew in a place where water was scarce, which may mean the Chacoans watered the tree. This tree’s shadow at different times of the year may have determined the semicircular shape of the pueblo, and the shadow’s movement during the day may have been used as a sundial. -- Paul Kantzaridis   TOP: This doorway is believed to have allowed the Chacoans to use the sun’s light to measure time.   BOTTOM: The only tree found in the pueblo stood in this area. The southern horizon is in the background.

Archeoastronomy at Pueblo Bonito: Horizonal Markers   The Chacoans may have kept their calendar by utilizing a stationary observer at the southeastern corner of Pueblo Bonito, where a small, step-like structure was built . A shaman standing in front of it each morning could have observed the changing position of the rising sun against specific points on the mesa tops in the distance. The summer solstice was signified by the sun rising from behind a large knob-shaped rock outcrop. Distinctive horizonal markings would keep precise calendar dates until Oct. 13 of each year. At that time, the doorway above the step-structure would allow timekeeping to continue. -- Brandon Velivis   TOP: Great Bear explains how the southeast corner of the Pueblo might have been used to mark time.   BOTTOM: If you face the horizon, this is what you see. The sun passing points on top of the mesas may have indicated important ceremonial days.

Threatening Rock   On Jan. 22, 1941, a giant block of sandstone weighing 30,000 tons broke away from a cliff wall in Chaco Canyon. This rock, named Threatening Rock, measured 97 feet high, 140 feet long and 34 feet thick. When it fell it destroyed 19 rooms of Pueblo Bonito. Eyewitnesses stated it took 90 seconds for the dust to clear. Today, the fallen rock remains where it fell 59 years ago. If a segment of a cliff can come crashing down, what’s next for the pueblo? -- Ronya Younes   LEFT: This is a portion of the fallen Threatening Rock taken from the west. Pueblo Bonito is behind us.

The Big Mystery of Pueblo Bonito   What was Pueblo Bonito? What was it used for? The Anasazi, the first inhabitants of the Southwest, built the large pueblos. But no one knows why. At Pueblo Bonito, Great Bear says, there wasn’t enough trash found to suggest that people lived there all the time. The trash has layers. That suggests people came and went. There wasn’t enough water either, although there were water diversion systems. Food would have been scarce. Maybe someday scientists will find out a good explanation for the creation of Pueblo Bonito. However, the only ones that have the real answers are the people, and they have been gone since the 1200s, so we can’t ask them. -- Dereck Rivera   TOP: These doors lead into the heart of Pueblo Bonito. They symbolize to us the questions within questions provoked by the site. First Doorway--Derick Rivera; Second Doorway--L Ronya Younes, R Lisandra Collazo; Third Doorway--L Rachel Harmony, R Paul Kantzaridis; Fourth Doorway--L Brandon Velivis, R Gary A. Becker   MIDDLE: In the 1950s, a Navajo carved these symbols representing an ancient legend in the rock to keep him safe as he restored the walls in this sacred place.   BOTTOM: We search for our own answers at Pueblo Bonito. Here we are making a videograph of ourselves going through the doors of the pueblo as might have been done in a ceremony. From L-R, Gary A. Becker, Rachel Harmony, Brandon Velivis, Mark Balanda, Ronya Younes, and Lisandra Collazo