WEBVTT

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We're now heading out
of New Mexico towards.

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Hidden in the Four
Corners region

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are markers from ancient
solar calendars.

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Seeing these relics
on just the right day,

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offers glimpses of
the artistic life

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of some of the first Americans.

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The edge of this rock
can be aligned with

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those standing stones that
we've seen. like Pueblo Bonito.

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You look at the rock there.

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Of course getting there
can be half the fun.

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Major funding for The Desert
      Speaks was provided by

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the Kemper and Ethel
Marley Foundation.

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Additional funding
was provided by

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Desert Program Partners and
by Arizona State Parks.

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Living in the open and
coast of the land

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like the ancient Anasazi,
makes people aware

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of the power of the sun; its
behavior, its seasons

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and their affect on our lives.

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The Anasazi were skilled
observers of celestial events

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and became some of the

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most sophisticated
ancient astronomers.

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I'm joining a group from Crow
Canyon Archaeological Center

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in Colorado in search
of what's left

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of their cosmological record.

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The Four Corners area is
the heart of the Anasazi culture

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including our starting point
along the San Juan River.

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To help us understand what we're
seeing our veteran trip leader

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and renowned archaeologist
Gwinn Vivian

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and lifelong
astronomer John Fountain.

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This trip is essentially
designed to bring people

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to places where we know
that prehistoric peoples

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recorded movements of the sun.

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June 21st,
Summer Solstice.

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The sun's straight
up, hot and blazing.

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So it's a pretty tough
time of the year,

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maybe the hottest day.

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We've got ten hours
of sun on the river.

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But there's hope.

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Cause when the solstice
come, the old timers knew

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and maybe we know the
rains can't be too far away.

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The San Juan is a desert
canyon river and it sometimes

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got treacherous deep
places and bad currents.

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Sometimes you have to
take a risk in life

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and so I'm going to do it.

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There it is, the San
Juan at its deepest.

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If too many people drink
out of it at the same time,

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the level goes way down.

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The first stop on our two-day
river trip leads us to

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a panel of Anasazi rock art and
plenty of speculation.

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The images are up high
now and it's most likely

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that whoever did them was
standing on the ground.

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This is eight hundred
years of erosion.

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It's eroded the slopes down.

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Sometimes you see figures
with a little bird or a dog

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or something on their
shoulder like a spirit helper.

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So there's various things
about this panel

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that suggests that
these are Shamen.

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These are not stick
figures at all.

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You can see the arms,
the legs, the hands,

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fingers on the hands and
your don't see that

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practically at all in
later human figures that

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appear in Anasazi rock art.

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There's a yucca plant.

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There's some bighorn sheep.

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There's some corn plants,
more of those lobe circles.

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There's quite an
assortment of things.

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There's an ET figure
that proved that the

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extra-terrestrials were
here in Basketmaker times.

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Does that look like
ET to you up there?

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No, but he's got
the long arms.

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Sometimes we don't want
something to look too human.

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Right.

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Exactly.

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One of the ways to translate the
freedom in a graphic image

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would be floating upside down.

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There's multiple kinds of
ways to explain these

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but they all come back to
some kind of trance state.

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Various archaeologists
have looked at those figures

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and felt that they
represented some kind of

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out-of-this-world
kind of being that was

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important to their culture.

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Well at about forty-five
minutes from here

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to where we will walk
over to River House.

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On this stretch
of the San Juan,

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the walls are pretty far apart.

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The river tends to
meander, move back and forth.

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It brings a lot of silt and
drops it as it meanders.

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That makes for fertile
fields and the Anasazi,

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the people before 'em,
found it was great

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for raising corns and
beans and squash.

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So then we'll be able to take a
short walk up to River House.

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From the cool river it's a half
mile hike through the heat.

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It's the largest
archaeological site

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on the San Juan River.

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River House was a
habitation site.

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We find evidence of
storage units here.

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We find kivas and we find
a good number of rooms.

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All of which come
together and tell us that

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we are dealing with a
habitation site here.

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.the palm of the hand
was painted with those designs.

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The ceramics at River House
and the architecture

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at River House say
'Mesa Verde.'

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Basically this reflects
the fact that these rooms,

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the kivas, were
built by Mesa Verde people.

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Probably a group of related
families occupied River House

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in which you have clans
which come together,

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individual clans are responsible
for different ceremonies

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during the year, the
whole idea being that

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the bringing together of those
ceremonies provides

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a benefit for the
entire community.

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The panels at Butler Wash
are petroglyphs

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which are pecked into the cliff.

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We have also pictographs
including a red and white

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wavy figure that may
be a snake figure.

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And then behind us a
whole set of white hands.

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We see here a representation
of the idea of the sky.

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The people have made dots
and little plus signs on

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the overhang to represent
the idea of the sky.

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Not actual constellations
because we know what

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constellations were
important to them and we

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do not find those
here at all.

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We find no match
with the sky.

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We do find a cluster of spots up
there that is suggestive

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of the Pleiades which
we know to have been

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very important
to them though.

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Throughout the southwest
and even into Mesoamerica

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the sky serpent is very
important and he's often

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represented as having ?
or horns moving upward

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into the sky and so is
quite consistent with this

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interpretation of a
planetarium ceiling.

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The rest of the
stops on our trip

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don't involve wading
through rivers.

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Fifty miles east of our
take out on the San Juan

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is Hovenweep National
Monument, not too far from

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the national park at
Mesa Verde for which

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the ancient inhabitants
are now named.

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Here, a few days after
the solstice, if we're lucky,

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we'll see how the
rays of the sun intersect

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the mystical Anasazi spiral.

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My guess is they selected sites
like this so that they could

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bring a large crowd out and
tell a story and have an

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audio-visual, a multi-media
presentation.

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And if it was cloudy on
the important day,

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they could bring the folks
back the next day

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and still show the same event.

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We have many examples of
solar markers that are not

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terribly precise but
are in a very public area

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where lots of people can
see, where the acoustics

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are fairly good, but some
of the more precise ones

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are tucked away in places
where only one or two people

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can see them at a time.

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Hovenweep not only has
solstice markers but some

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mighty fine
architecture as well.

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This is a Hovenweep
collection of tower sites

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that are representative
of a probable movement of

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Mesa Verde peoples
from the east.

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These people were
Ancestral Puebloans or

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some people called
them Anasazi.

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Tree ring dates put them
here from about 1230 to 1280.

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Probably they were here
up until about 1300.

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Archaeologists have really
argued about what function

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these buildings
may have served to the

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pre-historic people
that lived here.

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There's some fairly good
evidence that they were located

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at the heads of canyons
for defense of springs.

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The middle 1200s was
a period of time when

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things were
getting rather dry.

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Springs were a very
important resource.

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Here on the mesas of the high
deserts of the southwest

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there's only about eight to ten
inches of rainfall of year.

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That's not much to
make a tree grow.

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There is one tree though
that does real well here.

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And that's the ever present,
very common, Juniper tree.

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Not only is the
sweet-smelling Juniper wood

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the finest firewood
anywhere, but the bark

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which is easily pulled
off the tree could be twisted

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and made into
rope, into cord, into thread,

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into string and from this ?

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Juniper bark, garments
still exist today that

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were woven hundreds
of years ago.

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These people had a series
of rituals, much as we do,

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that changed through the years.

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Religious ceremonies that were
performed at different times

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of the year and knowing when the
sun was in different positions

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during the year helped them to
mark those times of the year

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when those ceremonies
should be carried out.

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In many places in the
southwest we have structures

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with apertures or holes
like this which allow

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the morning sunlight to shine
through to a distinctive place

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on the far wall
at the solstices.

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Here at Hovenweep Castle
we have the opposite situation

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where sunlight
shines through at sunset.

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I think that archaeologists
have tended to possibly

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over exaggerate the relevance of
some of the observations

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that archaeologists have made.

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We can't get into the
minds of the people who lived

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in the past and a lot of this is
based upon our supposition

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as to what may have happened in
the past and some of it

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may be mere coincidence.

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Just twenty miles to the
northwest of Hovenweep is

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Montezuma Canyon, home
of the Cold Bed Ruin.

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I was hoping to see
impressive architecture

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and cliff dwellings, as
they were at one time.

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Instead it looked like
scattered piles of rocks.

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Fortunately, Gwinn and
John have done their homework.

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I think that probably some of
you as we've walked up here

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have thought that there
really isn't any order to it.

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In fact, these buildings were
very well laid out and defined.

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And this is one good example
where you can see the outer wall

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of this complex of
ruins and kivas.

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The deep depression
over there is a kiva.

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Whether or not this represented
a certain segment of the society

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that was living here,
we really can't tell.

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But it's a line of evidence that
archaeologists could follow

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and look for differences in
ceramic production between this

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group of ruins and the
group of ruins that we've

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just come over as
we've walked up here.

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Some of these pillars
are leaning and some have

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actually fallen over.

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Yes, but if one measures
along the base of them,

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one finds a remarkably
north-south alignment.

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So this suggests an
astronomical use.

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They could have been
incorporated into the

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architecture of the
nearby ruins but we have

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an indication that they
might have been used to measure

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the position of the sun at
different times of the year.

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There's more going
on here than just an

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alignment of these rocks.

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We have a gun site here
that allows us to line up

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the position of the sun
at various times of the year.

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So here we must
be looking west.

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That's right.

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The edge of this rock
can be aligned with

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those standing stones that
we've seen and those would

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mark certain times of the year
when the sun is low in the sky.

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And you believe that?

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Well, I believe that that's
a very strong possibility

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given that those stones are
accurately aligned to the north.

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But they could be part
of the architecture

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of the ruins behind it.

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So how would
you verify this?

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Well, first we take simple
compass measurements

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and if this looks
like it's productive,

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then we do a survey to
see if the directions

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that we're looking in are
consistent with the sun

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at various times of the year.

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That'll tell you whether they
knew what they were doing here.

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That's right.

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The problem that we have
is that these stones are old

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and have tilted and
we don't know exactly how

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they were placed
originally.

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The Coal Bed Ruin has
a number of examples of

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really good Mesa
Verde pottery.

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This is a Black on White.

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You really know it's Mesa Verde
Black on White because

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of the black marks on
the top of the rim.

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It probably, because
it's so white on the background,

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was produced at Mesa Verde.

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This is what was probably
produced locally because

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the background is gray
with the Black on Gray.

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They also were producing
the cooking ware

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such as indented corrugated.

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There's another example of
the indented corrugated

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and there's a lot here.

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Here's yet one more of
the Mesa Verde Black on White

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that's become
pretty much faded.

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So you find this whole
range of this type of ceramics

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but they all are
Mesa Verde Black on White.

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In addition to the
ceramics that we find here,

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these people were producing a
lot of lithic stone tools

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out of a kind of
material that's local,

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it's called Brushy Basin
chert or Morrison chert.

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And what's really
intriguing is this material

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which is mined here
was traded to Chaco.

16:22.414 --> 16:23.816 align:start
One hundred and fifty
miles away in New Mexico

16:23.849 --> 16:26.919 align:start
is Chaco Canyon.

16:26.952 --> 16:29.722 align:start
This was the apex of Anasazi
culture with a collection

16:29.755 --> 16:33.625 align:start
of apartments, observation
sites, roads connecting outlying

16:33.659 --> 16:36.695 align:start
villages and, above all,
a demonstration of

16:36.729 --> 16:44.803 align:start
engineering accomplishments and
astronomical achievements.

16:44.837 --> 16:46.972 align:start
We have over three hundred
solar markers documented

16:47.006 --> 16:49.875 align:start
throughout the southwest
marking the equinoxes,

16:49.908 --> 16:54.646 align:start
the solstices and the
cross quarter day,

16:54.680 --> 16:58.751 align:start
the day halfway in between the
equinox and the solstice.

16:58.784 --> 17:03.722 align:start
In Chaco we probably have
almost more evidence for

17:03.756 --> 17:08.293 align:start
that kind of marking of
the movement of the sun

17:08.327 --> 17:11.597 align:start
than any other single
well known archaeological site

17:11.630 --> 17:13.832 align:start
in the southwest.

17:13.866 --> 17:17.936 align:start
The Anasazi people are the
ancestors of Puebloan peoples

17:17.970 --> 17:22.307 align:start
who we find today in villages
such as Zuni, in New Mexico,

17:22.341 --> 17:27.746 align:start
the Hopi Pueblos in Arizona and
the Rio Grande hill peoples.

17:27.780 --> 17:33.185 align:start
The primary form of
subsistence was as farmers.

17:33.218 --> 17:37.790 align:start
They were always hunting.

17:37.823 --> 17:39.458 align:start
They were always
gathering.

17:39.491 --> 17:44.296 align:start
But I can say that most,
sixty percent or seventy percent

17:44.329 --> 17:48.667 align:start
of their food they depended
upon being farmers.

17:48.700 --> 17:51.336 align:start
Because great houses have a lot
of standing architecture,

17:51.370 --> 17:53.705 align:start
that is the walls are standing
and you can see them,

17:53.739 --> 17:56.575 align:start
we have much better
evidence in those buildings

17:56.608 --> 18:00.712 align:start
for using buildings to
mark different phases

18:00.746 --> 18:03.816 align:start
of the movement of the sun.

18:03.849 --> 18:07.052 align:start
We're standing right next
to the southern most wall

18:07.086 --> 18:10.289 align:start
of the great house
Pueblo Bonito.

18:10.322 --> 18:15.127 align:start
And it forms an east-west
alignment with great precision

18:15.160 --> 18:19.164 align:start
and then right down the
middle of the great house

18:19.164 --> 18:24.036 align:start
we have a wall that goes
exactly north-south.

18:24.069 --> 18:26.004 align:start
And so this building is
very carefully aligned

18:26.038 --> 18:29.508 align:start
along the cardinal
directions.

18:29.541 --> 18:32.077 align:start
This is consistent with
the pre-occupation that Chacoans

18:32.111 --> 18:38.450 align:start
seem to have
with directionality.

18:38.484 --> 18:40.652 align:start
In the southeast corner of
Pueblo Bonito we have an unusual

18:40.686 --> 18:42.855 align:start
architectural
feature which points

18:42.888 --> 18:47.593 align:start
toward the winter solstice.

18:47.626 --> 18:49.761 align:start
Whether it was a true
observation point or not

18:49.795 --> 18:51.730 align:start
is open to question
because we don't know whether

18:51.763 --> 18:55.467 align:start
there was a
wall obstructing it.

18:55.501 --> 18:58.437 align:start
But certainly it points in that
direction but it would not

18:58.470 --> 19:04.076 align:start
make a precise device for
observing the event.

19:04.109 --> 19:05.444 align:start
The winter solstice
represents the end

19:05.477 --> 19:07.913 align:start
of a cycle of the sun's motion.

19:07.946 --> 19:11.116 align:start
It's a metaphor for death.

19:11.150 --> 19:14.720 align:start
By the same token, it's
a metaphor for rebirth

19:14.753 --> 19:18.257 align:start
because from now on the
sun is rising higher in the sky,

19:18.290 --> 19:20.192 align:start
later on the
plants will come back

19:20.225 --> 19:26.198 align:start
and a new cycle of
life begins.

19:26.231 --> 19:28.300 align:start
Originally I think
archaeologists thought that

19:28.333 --> 19:33.138 align:start
noting the pre-historic
documenting of the solstices,

19:33.172 --> 19:34.907 align:start
both the summer and
the winter solstices,

19:34.940 --> 19:38.277 align:start
was related to their
planting cycles.

19:38.310 --> 19:40.145 align:start
That they used this as a
way of telling them when

19:40.179 --> 19:43.615 align:start
they should plant
in the spring.

19:43.615 --> 19:45.984 align:start
More archaeologists now
feel that it may not have been

19:46.018 --> 19:48.287 align:start
related that closely to the
planting cycle but was important

19:48.320 --> 19:50.989 align:start
for carrying out a series
of rituals which were

19:51.023 --> 19:54.193 align:start
scheduled throughout the year.

19:54.226 --> 19:58.330 align:start
They were using particularly
the sun to develop

19:58.363 --> 20:01.166 align:start
a calendar to remind
themselves of when

20:01.200 --> 20:09.241 align:start
they should be carrying
out these rituals.

20:09.274 --> 20:11.910 align:start
People have been in Chaco Canyon
for at least two thousand years.

20:11.944 --> 20:15.347 align:start
They came from various points
around the San Juan Basin.

20:15.380 --> 20:18.784 align:start
They came from the south,
they came from the north.

20:18.817 --> 20:24.223 align:start
We see them occupying the canyon
until the middle to the late

20:24.256 --> 20:26.158 align:start
1100s at which point
there's a general exodus

20:26.191 --> 20:28.760 align:start
out of the canyon.

20:28.794 --> 20:32.831 align:start
It was almost certainly
abandoned because of a drought.

20:32.864 --> 20:36.835 align:start
And it simply became
ultimately too dry for them

20:36.868 --> 20:41.373 align:start
to farm successfully.

20:41.406 --> 20:43.442 align:start
When you're in Chaco, normally
if you're on the north side

20:43.475 --> 20:45.043 align:start
of the canyon, what you're
gonna be pretty much seeing

20:45.077 --> 20:47.479 align:start
are the great houses.

20:47.512 --> 20:49.982 align:start
If you cross to the south
side, you'll see the great kiva

20:50.015 --> 20:55.754 align:start
of Casa Rinconara and a
number of small house sites.

20:55.787 --> 20:59.057 align:start
The light is coming down
from the top and it's

20:59.091 --> 21:06.031 align:start
going to shine right into that
little square right over there.

21:06.064 --> 21:08.500 align:start
They either accidentally got it
just right or they created

21:08.533 --> 21:12.638 align:start
the alignment
in the first place.

21:12.671 --> 21:14.539 align:start
It's a perfect illustration
of the basic technique

21:14.573 --> 21:16.842 align:start
for sun watchingóbringing
the sun indoors

21:16.875 --> 21:19.211 align:start
and then being able to mark
it on the opposite wall

21:19.244 --> 21:21.880 align:start
and this isn't unique to the
southwest by any means.

21:21.913 --> 21:24.483 align:start
So it has the power, it
has that kind of energy.

21:24.516 --> 21:27.219 align:start
People come and see it,
they're impacted by it

21:27.252 --> 21:29.921 align:start
and at least in part when
they would create such things,

21:29.955 --> 21:32.624 align:start
that's a part of the reason.

21:32.658 --> 21:35.193 align:start
It's like an artistic expression
of our true relationship

21:35.227 --> 21:37.195 align:start
with the rest of the world.

21:37.229 --> 21:39.398 align:start
And so it's supposed to have a
powerful impact and this does.

21:39.431 --> 21:40.666 align:start
Whether it was
intentional or not

21:40.699 --> 21:46.805 align:start
is almost beside the point.

21:46.838 --> 21:50.008 align:start
They're amazing the way
they angled everything.

21:50.042 --> 21:53.945 align:start
They had it all
figured out.

21:53.979 --> 21:57.115 align:start
You get a feeling here
of what used to happen.

21:57.149 --> 22:03.922 align:start
So yeah, there was
some connection.

22:03.955 --> 22:06.391 align:start
This is often related
to the idea of the sun

22:06.391 --> 22:10.062 align:start
impregnating the earth, an
expression of appreciation

22:10.095 --> 22:12.731 align:start
for the fertility of the earth
or perhaps hoping for

22:12.764 --> 22:17.502 align:start
improved fertility
in the future.

22:17.536 --> 22:20.305 align:start
And how better could you
memorialize the sun,

22:20.339 --> 22:26.645 align:start
pay homage to the sun, than
using its light in a special way

22:26.678 --> 22:29.448 align:start
during your ceremonies.

22:29.481 --> 22:32.150 align:start
They had the
sophistication to do it.

22:32.184 --> 22:34.619 align:start
Whether this was
just a coincidence,

22:34.653 --> 22:37.723 align:start
what we observed today, or
whether it was carefully planned

22:37.756 --> 22:45.163 align:start
and there was an aperture
out here, we don't know.

22:45.197 --> 22:48.066 align:start
This morning we'll be
taking a walk up the canyon

22:48.100 --> 22:53.839 align:start
to Penasco Blanco to look at
the super nova pictograph.

22:53.872 --> 22:57.442 align:start
The Chacoans were
sophisticated architects

22:57.442 --> 23:00.345 align:start
and accomplished astronomers.

23:00.379 --> 23:03.749 align:start
But they are also human
beings with time on their hands.

23:03.782 --> 23:06.718 align:start
And they liked to carve
in this soft sandstone.

23:06.752 --> 23:08.987 align:start
Some of these
symbols are probably

23:09.020 --> 23:11.123 align:start
very important
culturally for them.

23:11.156 --> 23:13.024 align:start
Others are just doodlings
that may have come along

23:13.058 --> 23:16.094 align:start
the last thousand years.

23:16.128 --> 23:18.096 align:start
If we look carefully,
we can probably see what

23:18.130 --> 23:22.401 align:start
they had on their minds.

23:22.434 --> 23:24.836 align:start
A hand, crescent, star.

23:24.836 --> 23:25.904 align:start
Okay.

23:25.937 --> 23:27.305 align:start
All right.

23:27.339 --> 23:29.207 align:start
I have little comment on
a hand except that this

23:29.241 --> 23:31.843 align:start
is a way of
personalizing a drawing.

23:31.843 --> 23:35.013 align:start
But what we're seeing here is an
image of the crescent moon,

23:35.046 --> 23:38.517 align:start
which is very
rare in rock art.

23:38.550 --> 23:41.086 align:start
We see next to it a ten-pointed
star which we believe

23:41.119 --> 23:44.456 align:start
is a representation
of the crab super nova

23:44.489 --> 23:48.126 align:start
when it exploded in 1054.

23:48.160 --> 23:52.431 align:start
We know the moon, crescent moon
was very close at that time.

23:52.464 --> 23:55.801 align:start
It is also possible that
it was a long period comet

23:55.834 --> 23:58.870 align:start
which was only visible in
the northern hemisphere.

23:58.870 --> 24:00.906 align:start
There is precedent for
this sort of thing.

24:00.939 --> 24:03.175 align:start
But we can't say what
it was with certainty.

24:03.208 --> 24:07.112 align:start
Super nova events are
really very rare events.

24:07.145 --> 24:10.015 align:start
They happen only once
every couple of hundred years

24:10.048 --> 24:12.918 align:start
and certainly people who
were sky watchers,

24:12.951 --> 24:15.153 align:start
as we know these people were,

24:15.187 --> 24:20.792 align:start
would have taken note
of it immediately.

24:20.826 --> 24:27.466 align:start
The millennia of human
habitation of the high desert

24:27.499 --> 24:30.869 align:start
of the southwest culminated
in four hundred years

24:30.902 --> 24:36.341 align:start
of dazzling art,
architecture and astronomy.

24:36.374 --> 24:39.678 align:start
An ongoing drought drove
the people away,

24:39.711 --> 24:44.449 align:start
ended their accomplishment
and studies by the astronomers.

24:44.483 --> 24:46.852 align:start
We can only speculate
what these scientists knew

24:46.885 --> 24:51.289 align:start
but it was a result, not
of miracle or mystery,

24:51.323 --> 24:55.760 align:start
but of decades and decades of
careful studies of the sun

24:55.794 --> 24:58.463 align:start
and observations of
the heavens above.

25:00.999 --> 25:09.374 align:start
The colonial city of
Alamos in northwest Mexico

25:09.407 --> 25:13.478 align:start
has plenty to offer visitors.

25:13.512 --> 25:16.748 align:start
There's Spanish legacy
and rich natural treasures.

25:16.781 --> 25:19.317 align:start
Perhaps most interesting,
the traditional knowledge

25:19.351 --> 25:23.855 align:start
from some of the area's
longest residents, the Mayos.

25:23.889 --> 25:27.025 align:start
Next time on The Desert Speaks.

26:00.392 --> 26:02.794 align:start
Major funding for The Desert
      Speaks was provided by

26:02.827 --> 26:06.064 align:start
the Kemper and Ethel
Marley Foundation.

26:06.097 --> 26:08.466 align:start
Additional funding
was provided by