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The Mystery of Chaco Canyon

Indigenous Peoples • 55m

Directed by Anna Sofaer • Documentary • 1999 • 56 minutes

THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. It is the summation of 20 years of research. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern throughout a vast desert region. 

The film challenges the notion that Chaco Canyon was primarily a trade and redistribution center. 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. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were the materials used by the Chacoan architects and builders to express their knowledge of an order in the universe.

Tags
american (u.s.) studies, american studies, americas, anasazi, ancient history, anthropology and archaeology, archaeology, architecture, area studies, art history, astronomy, bullfrog films, celestial calendar, chaco canyon, cosmology, cultural and ethnic studies, doc, equinox, expository, history, hopi, indigenous, indigenous spirituality and religion, indigenous studies, lunar cycle, mathematics, moon, native americans, new mexico, north american studies, ovid, ovid_ca, petroglyphs, physical science, pueblo bonito, religion and spirituality, robert redford, s_0013, s_0016, s_0155, s_0156, s_0190, s_0306, s_0444, s_0642, science and technology, solstice, sun, sun dagger, the, the mystery of chaco canyon, title_ijklm, title_m, united states, world regions

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