Anna Sofaer, known for discovering the Sun Dagger site on Fajada Butte at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, is giving a presentation on Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology
Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 7:00 pm (free)
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Bradbury Science Museum
Central and 15th Street
She plans to sign copies of her book at the Otowi Station Bookstore next door to the Bradbury Science Museum prior to her talk, from 5 to 7 pm.
Visit Anna Sofaer's website, The Solstice Project, for more information about the event, and about the Sun Dagger on Fajada Butte.
High on a butte in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon at summer solstice in 1977, researcher Anna Sofaer encountered an astonishing phenomenon—a single shaft of light bisecting a spiral petroglyph, crafted long ago by the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people. Her recognition of its significance led to thirty years of research that has revealed extensive astronomical expressions in Chaco’s architecture and art. These efforts by Sofaer with numerous colleagues in archaeology and astronomy, and with Native scholars, developed a revolutionary view of Chaco as a center of complex cosmology.
Perhaps you have seen two of the Solstice Project's films: The Sun Dagger and The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Both are narrated by Robert Redford.
If you are in the area, it should be an interesting evening. Let me know if you attend!
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