High up on Fajada Butte (shown above) at the mouth of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico's desert, three sandstone slabs lean against the rock wall looking almost as if they had slid into place. They did not. Nearly a millennium ago the Anasazi, probably ancestors of today's Pueblo people, constructed an amazing "observatory" which marks the summer and winter solstices, the spring and fall equinoxes, and the Moon's most northerly and southerly rising points during its nineteen year cycle. As evidenced by Fajada Butte, the world's only known archeological site to mark all of these significant astronomical events, Native Americans were outstanding observational scientists prior to Columbus's arrival in the New World.

Here are some web sites that will tell you more about Chaco Canyon, Sundagger, and the Anasazi.

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park web site.

Sundagger picture.

An article, "Native American Perspectives," on teaching about the Sundagger, appeared in The Science Teacher in 1998 (vol. 65, number 3, pages 32-36).

The remains of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco's largest pueblo, once stood five stories tall and cause us to speculate about the Anasazi whose culture embraced the present-day "Four Corners" area of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

If you'd like to learn more about the astronomy of ancient people, click on ancient astronomy or the Archeological Institute of America.

The MOON Project has been funded by grants from the Ball State University Diversity Associates Project and NASA.
Last modified 22 December 2006.