Cosmological Sacred Geometry

The following is a brief overview of the research and conclusions of the Solstice Project, founded by Anna Sofaer.  To read the in-depth research on their findings, go the their website: SOLSTICE PROJECT.

The People of Chaco were part of the "Anasazi" or "Ancient Ones" who once inhabited much of the Southwest. Through the Solstice Project, Anna Sofaer and her team have done extensive and open-minded research into the concept that the ruins of Chaco were once impressive structures created for some cosmic-spiritual purpose and were not intended for use in the mundane world. To quote from The Solstice Project website:

"Recent studies by the Solstice Project indicate that the major buildings of the ancient Chacoan culture of New Mexico contain solar and lunar cosmology in three separate articulations: their orientations, internal geometry, and geographic interrelationships were developed in relationship to the cycles of the sun and moon.

"...Chaco Canyon was a 'central archive for esoteric knowledge, such as maintenance of the region's ceremonial calendar.' "

Rooms in the buildings are mostly very small, with little or no openings for light and no roof holes for smoke ventilation. There is for the most part, no evidence that these rooms were ever lived in, or fires built within them.

Many of these small rooms have entrances that were sealed off with stone masonry long before the entire structure was abandoned.

THE SUN DAGGER

One of the most intriguing aspects of Chaco Canyon is the "Sun Dagger" of Fajada Butte. For detailed information, photographs and drawings of the Sun Dagger, go to the Solstice Project pages on this topic: A UNIQUE SOLAR MARKING CONSTRUCT.  In brief, however, the Sun Dagger is composed of two spiral petroglyphs on a cliff of Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon.  These petroglyphs are positioned directly behind three large and obviously carefully positioned stone slabs, through which the light of both the sun and the moon have access to the two spiral petroglyphs on the cliff face.

To quote from "The Solstice Project website:

"An assembly of stone slabs on an isolated butte in New Mexico collimates sunlight onto spiral petroglyphs carved on a cliff face. The light illuminates the spirals in a changing pattern throughout the year and marks the solstices and equinoxes with particular images. The assembly can also be used to observe lunar phenomena. It is unique in archeoastronomy in utilizing the changing height of the midday sun throughout the year rather than its rising and setting points. The construct appears to be the result of deliberate work of the Anasazi Indians, the builders of the great pueblos in the area."