GRANTS - The ancient art of sun watching is alive and well today at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in western New Mexico.

Archeoastronomer G.B. Cornucopia of the park staff explained, in a power point presentation at the Double Six Gallery on Saturday, how ancient astronomy led to architectural details in the construction of the great houses of the canyon.

Archeoastronomy is the study of the astronomical practices of ancient cultures, so Cornucopia has expertise in both astronomy and archeology.

Archeoastronomers study the clues that ancient astronomers left behind and at Chaco Canyon they talk with the contemporary Pueblo people to learn about the knowledge passed down to them by their ancestors.

Dr. Shelly Valdez of Laguna Pueblo is quoted in a park brochure, “The sun is seen through our culture in many different forms. We're connected to the sun spiritually through the ceremonies that we have, through the seasons, through the cardinal directions, how we live and how we see that all nature is connected.”

“Chaco Canyon is so ancient, but it still intrigues us after 1,000 years. Astronomy is the tie between ancient and modern times because the sky doesn't change and looks the same way today as it did in Chacoan times,” Cornucopia said during the lecture.

He told the audience that the sky actually begins at our feet and that we came to our understanding of time by watching the sky. “Time is actually an extension of us and how we move through our environment,” he remarked.

“The nomadic peoples learned that seasons changed when the pattern of stars changed and learned the rhythmic realignment of the stars. But when people settled in one place they began to watch the sun to determine the seasonal changes,” Cornucopia explained.

By carefully watching where the sun rose and set, ancient sun watchers could use the landscape and buildings like a calendar.

Sun watching required clear skies and unique features on the horizon. The scientist pointed out that Chaco Canyon has an abundance of particular features on the horizon due to the shapes of the mesas, buttes and plateaus.

The sun watchers, who studied where the sun rose and set throughout the year, were considered to be holy men, a link between the Creator and the people.

These observations allowed the ancients to build their structures in accordance with the cardinal directions. Their Pueblo descendants still practice sun watching in locations throughout New Mexico, according to Cornucopia. “There is also a contemporary Navajo group which practices and teaches sun watching.”

Pueblo Bonito, the best known of the Chaco Canyon great houses, is an excellent example of how well the buildings lines up along the north, south, east and west. Some scientists and Native people today think the patterns of movement in the sky showed the ancient people how to place their buildings.

In the 1970s a visiting artist noticed that a sliver of sunlight shone into a room of a ruin on the first day of the Winter Solstice. Looking around, she noted that the sun was lined up with a notch in a mesa across from the ruin.

This observation started the study of the movement of the sun in relation to natural landscape features and the location of sunlight on the ruins, according to Cornucopia.

“These solar events enabled the people to plan ceremonies, which reinforced the values of harmony and balance in life. They believed that if the ceremonies were done correctly, they would ensure the return of the sun in the spring,” he said

“We look to the skies for the same reasons the ancients did…to know ourselves and our place in the universe. The average ancient person understood the skies, but modern man does not,” he observed.

“We cannot understand the infinite anymore because more than half the world's population lives in cities, where it is difficult to see the sky,” he concluded.

The historic park has an active interpretation program from March through October when a telescope is available for public use.

By Diane Fowler

Beacon staff writer