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Astronomy of the Anasazi

Gisela Ermel

The Astronomy of the Anasazi

In: Incognitas, No. 34, Stuttgart 2006



The so-called Chaco phenomenon of the Anasazi Indians is one of the great archaeological mysteries of North America dar. In the four countries meet - Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico - made stone age farmers and basket makers at some point before or after the year 800 AD, a sudden and inexplicable cultural leap by began mehstöckige buildings, stone settlements and straight Roads to build. All these activities was based on a joint master plan, which all joined together and can be designed only by a raised team of architects, astronomers and mathematicians.





The Chaco Canyon in New Mexico - the center of the Anasazikultur



The archaeologists are now excavating explore the ruins of the Anasazi and a mystery, since they can not explain who the master planner should have been. Where should these farmers, basket makers and mining hut builders suddenly possessed knowledge and skills that are not yet developed and gradually acquired by any other culture had been taken over? The researchers have really been looking very carefully for such a different culture, after they realized that there was no precursor to the Chaco phenomenon at the local Stone Age farmers, but in vain.

appears most striking in this Master Plan's fixation on the astronomical aspect. Studies and research in Chaco Canyon (the center of this sudden high culture in New Mexico) and in more than two hundred so far recovered outlier settlements revealed startling geometric-astronomical patterns. Almost the entire corner region was clearly the planners of this major construction project in a mathematical-astronomical Relationships have been transformed, according to the sun and moon alignments and movements of light and shadow in relation to landscape and structures had been combined. The location of buildings and structures at specific predetermined points was THE Chaco phenomenon underlying architectural concept.

The Chaco Canyon was chosen specifically as the center of this construction project, although this was the most desolate corner of the entire Anasazilandes with only sand, desert and rock, glowing hot summers and bitterly cold winters. But the course of the canyon forms a line, which amounts to a point on the horizon where the moon is at one of the moon Wend data. This point is reached the moon only once every 18.613 years, in contrast to the sun returns after a year to the same starting point. This moon Wend line of Chaco Canyon was marked by two Great Houses: Penasco Blanco and Una Vida, both at opposite ends of the canyon located in more than ten kilometers away from each other.



sketch of Chaco Canyon: from bottom right to the left goes up a lunar Wend line, marked by the Great Houses Penasco Blanco and Una Vida (Drawing: solsticeproject)



also conducting similar time a solstice line through the Chaco Canyon . At summer solstice the setting sun shines right through the canyon, while the winter solstice the rising sun. This line, which differs only slightly from the moon Wend line begins in children Nahasbas, a large underground room (Kiva), not far from the Great House Una Vida.

overlap exactly in the middle of the canyon, an exactly north-south line running the moon Wend line. On this north-south line were built Great Houses Pueblo Alto and Tsin Kletzin to mark them. Penasco Blanco and Una Vida are both exactly the same distance from the intersection of both lines removed.

Another moon Wend line connects the Great House Chetro KetL with in 27 miles from the Chaco Canyon Great House Pueblo Pintato lying, is Pueblo Pintado in turn with two other Great Houses connected by astronomical lines. How many of the outlier Great Houses with each other and connected to the Chaco Canyon by lunar, solar or cardinal lines are still not entirely clear. Constantly find new details of this relationship is astronomical identif sheet. Other lines connect buildings with points on the horizon where the sun at the solstice data to - or goes down and the days of the day and night are equal. If we then add the straight streets of the Anasazi, whose power was once well on a total of 2400 kilometers or more extended, so is it all a giant grid, whose purpose no one understands and has a view.

These roads with a average width of eight to nine meters running total "unreasonable" by often end abruptly, sometimes several fro parallel to each other and instead of connecting settlements lead to no discernible purpose for us, ignoring the obstacles in the landscape.

These invisible and visible lines, but must have been for the master planner tremendously important, otherwise one would have hardly been so much trouble with the exact calculation and location of all buildings and structures. And the lines for that one - apart from the Roads - does not even! We recognize them only since the 1970s thanks to the Archaeoastronomy.

Some of the invisible astronomically oriented lines of Chaco Canyon

and outlier Great Houses

But why is Pueblo Bonito - the most beautiful and most famous Great House in Chaco Canyon - for the construction of which alone is good , a million bricks handled and installed, with 700 rooms and 30 underground circular chambers, all multi-storey, semi-circle - not exactly on the intersection of the north-south line (Pueblo Alto - Tsin Kletzin) with the moon Wend line (Penasco Blanco - Una Vida), but a piece next to it? At the intersection point is - nothing! At least here has never been an archaeologist Once dug in the sand to check this.

Pueblo Bonito: Great House in Chaco Canyon (reconstruction)

The ruins of Chetro KetL, one of the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon

But Pueblo Bonito was not built by mistake in the wrong place, for this Great House designated Chetro KetL an exact east-west line running, resulting in an extra point of intersection on the north-south line. The astronomical cardinal line patterns of all the Great Houses and outlier structures has many more Intersections on. We have no idea if these intersections were of any importance to the Anasazi. To build

the buildings at the exact predetermined points to the Anasazi lot of work and additional work took upon themselves. Una Vida, which would have Great House at the eastern end of the canyon, can be built on a completely flat portion of the valley floor. But this was apparently not the "right" place. Instead, a court was right next to it leveled with great effort and straightened. The amount of soil that had to be moved before construction could begin at all, must have been considerable. Also for Penasco Blanco at the opposite Canyon end had removed significant amounts of earth and a large flat terrace must be built to the Great House at all can build here, not to mention the fact that this place was like windy and inhospitable high up on the rim of the canyon in summer and winter.

Even for Pueblo Bonito down there in the middle of the valley it could have been a much more suitable building site. Just behind the Great House stood a menacing giant boulder that threatened to topple at any time in the building complex. But this place seemed so important to be built despite the imminent danger here, and by post, mortar and masonry tried to keep the rock in place. The weighty rock giant "Threatening Rock" was - until 21 January 1941 on the re-discovered and partially excavated ruins fell down and smashed numerous former rooms.

The Threatening Rock behind Pueblo Bonito, as he still stood

ruins of the Pueblo Bonito Threaatening Rock on

had at various points prior to construction The Great Houses and other buildings substrates straightened and platforms are erected in places where we would otherwise not be able to build. The selection of the sites could also apparently no consideration take on any nearby water sources or nearby farming fields.

Not only that all these structures were created at specific predetermined points exactly to give an invisible astronomical and mathematical grid, stretched beyond this eccentric master plan still on the floor plan of individual buildings. Great Houses were built so that the front page exactly north or south, or was just on in the direction of the midsummer moon or turning points horizon. Sometimes it was instead the back walls of the building, then the longitudinal axes, or a partition, sometimes several at once. Apparently no wall here had been raised, not previously been determined precisely in advance, in the master plan was.

But that's not enough. Certain window and door openings within the Great Houses were designed so that they could be seen to pass through certain astronomical events on the respective days, surrounded by picturesque this opening in the masonry. These were Sonnwendauf and / or sunsets as well as - again, preferably as in the lines - moonrise or sunset on the data of the small or large moon turns.

The Moon on a moon Wend date window of Pueblo del Arroyo

is the most sophisticated astronomical system but to Fajada Butte, a solitary giant rock monoliths at the entrance to Chaco Canyon. There, the Anasazi had created three approximately 2,000 pounds of sand stone tablets, which they rejected obliquely specific prior calculation against the rocky wall, combined with behind-mounted petroglyphs a calendar system, from the thought to reveal solstice and lunar Wend data.

The rock calendar system on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon

sun rays marked astronomical data on the rock art solstices and moon, contact: Fajada Butte

could now researchers are still on discover ten more Petroglyph Calendar on Fajada Butte, and a mysterious floor plan of Pueblo Bonito with overlying spiral and arrow, and their importance is no mirror-white.

mysterious rock art on Fajada Butte

But why and for whom all this was just built so and exactly where? Why the huge effort? Puzzled, the Anasazi had archaeologists now admit that nothing was really built as a dwelling. In the beautiful multi-story Great Houses with individual and ever different floor plans and designs were not more than a few people lived. The planner? The supervisors? Priest? The Anasazi Elite? The construction workers lived here at least not that were housed in simple pit houses according to the old style. There are so many theories about the few inhabitants of the Great Houses, as there are Anasazi archaeologists. Initially it was believed, this multi-story apartment houses were inhabited by thousands of people. But based on the artifacts found, the amount of food debris, flock and fireplaces, etc. had this idea to be revised.

The archaeologist Thomas C. Wind determined during his excavations at Pueblo Alto, that it is not only an extremely small number of residents are accepted, but that from the beginning only about one-quarter of the Great House was ever designed for occupancy. And that led straight out of here or leave here a number Chaco Roads. This 130 rooms' Great House situated high on the North Mesa the Chaco Canyon, had abnormally high rooms with four-meter high walls, and ran a number of corridors between the rooms. Why was this Great House is completely unknown. Also in Pueblo Bonito, only a very small number of residents had lived concentrated on one floor, although the 700 rooms would have provided space for many hundreds of people. Not much different, too, with the remaining Great Houses.

The purpose of this master plan is still completely unknown to archaeologists, although it was already compiled a whole smorgasbord of hypotheses and possible explanations. What is clear is that all of this - the development of the Great Houses, outlier settlements, Roads, calendars and so on - was designed by unknown master planners. At the completion of the construction project, many people have been involved for generations. They were apparently recruited from the small pit house settlements that existed in the Chaco Canyon and in the remaining four countries meet before the start of the cultural leap. Some areas were depopulated literally from the beginning of the construction project, such as the Tsegi Canyon, the Sleeping Ute Mountain or the Mesa Verde region. These people obviously had all left their homes, where they adapted so well to the landscape and climate had lived for centuries in order in the now desolate Chaco Canyon or to migrate to the corners, where were the outlier settlements in the Chaco phenomenon built. In other regions of Anasazi lived on to old way of the basket makers and Grubenhausart they were apparently not involved in the Chaco phenomenon.

Why did the Anasazi during the time of the Chaco phenomenon such an interest in astronomy? What was so important to the invisible lines and the many calendar systems? Was there an everyday necessity, explain this aspect could? The fact that it came to calendar data to determine for agriculture, archeologist believe in a long time no more. The tillage had the simple Anasazi from before the Chaco phenomenon very well mastered for centuries without such facilities. And what was the eccentric lunar cycle lasting 18.613 years for a benefit for sowing and harvesting have? The Anasazi did all these astronomical details of their master plan with a prolixity and accuracy that goes far beyond any practical use. Why this exaggerated and overloaded Astronomy architecture? If archaeologists think of anything more, they always come to the same temporary solution: religion. Needed the Anasazi, the Calendar dates for ceremonies or rituals? Great Houses had huge masses of pilgrims at certain times of houses? There's just one catch: there are no clear findings that would confirm this hypothesis, and we know nothing about a possible religion of the Anasazi.

Or is invisible in these lines with intersections, for which interested yet not an archaeologist on site, in a message that we do not yet know it? The Great Houses and lines have been set is not without purpose or out of sheer fascination with certain astronomical regularities in the landscape, but according to pre-thought out carefully and with a specified schedule. But where and how have developed out of nothing simple stone age farmers so high measurement technique? And all this just for calendars? The Astronomy alone can not suffice to explain all of the targeted sites. Does the master plan in mathematics and geometry coded message? If so, by whom? The Anasazi - or their unknown master plan?

The Chaco phenomenon ended as suddenly as it had begun. Apparently it took only until the date on until the master plan was completed. Then no more Great House was built, did not add invisible line over the whole. The Anasazi began an entirely new section: the collapse phase.

First, there was - abandoned by the master planners? - A few half-hearted attempts in small groups abandoned parts of the Great Houses to inhabit. Great "squatters" Riessen here a couple of walls, listed there add a few primitive walls, but then the big run began in the rocky cliffs in many parts of the Anasazilandes where you are in comparison with the Great Houses rather primitive cliff dwellings in the most inaccessible places entrenched in steep cliffs and hidden. Against whom? Then there is still no answer. Master planners no longer seemed to work among the Anasazi, instead, many small villages and cliff dwellings were invaded, slaughtered the inhabitants, and in many Cases then also cut, cooked, roasted and eaten. The Anasazi were gradually everything and - sometimes even their most prized possessions, and pre-addressed meals - and disappeared. Where? Even that there is still no answer. Around the year 1300 practically all old Anasaziland in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico was deserted.

But in the surrounding regions began to rock art, to tell of beings that have been designated by the much later Pueblo Indians (Hopi, Zuni, etc.) as Kachinas: celestial master, which for a time had lived among the Indians and worked. The master planner of the Chaco phenomenon?

Literatur:

Calogero, Pietro: Urban Genesis at Chaco. 2000. www.calogero.org/UrbanOrigins

Ermel, Gisela: Das Anasazi-Rätsel. Leipzig 2005

Kantner, John: The Anasazi from A.D. 900 - A.D. 1150. www.sipapu.gsu.edu/time/timeline900

Kantner, John / Keith Kintigh: The Chaco World. Tucson 2002

Kantner, John / N.M. Mahoney: Chacoan Great Houses Communities across the Anasazi Landscape. Tucson 2000

Sofaer, Anna: The Primary Architecture of the Chacoan Culture: A Cosmological Expression. In: BH Morrow / VB Price: Anasazi Architecture and American Design. Albuquerque 1997

Varien, Mark: Regional Context: Architecture, Settlement Patterns and Abandonment. www.crowcanyon.org / research reports / site / testing

www.astronomy.ponoma.edu / archeo / outside / chaco

www.solsticeproject.org / research

More Topic:

Gisela Ermel:
The Anasazi mystery.

master planner, cannibals and Kachinas: On the trail of a vanished people.

Bohmeier-Verlag, Leipzig ISBN 3-89094-448-5 2005

200 pages, with illustrations