Interpreting an Ancient Landscape
Driving in Southern Utah, over the ten thousand foot high Boulder Mountain, we came to a place where the Freemont Indians and the Anasazi were said to have intermingled. The Anasazi, also known as the Ancestoral Pueblo, stemmed from Northern New Mexico and Arizona, while the Freemont were concentrated in Southern Utah. Not surprisingly, given their proximity, there were similarities between them, which were especially evident in their pottery and art work. However, there were also significant differences. The Freemont Indians lived primarily in pit-houses, deep in the ground, whereas the Anasazi sought shelter in cliff dwellings high up in the rocks. By the end of the 13th century, both peoples had deserted the area rather precipitously, leaving scientists, ever since, to speculate and wonder about their disappearance.
The Sun Dagger is located on Fajada Butte. Photo courtesy of Buggs under a Creative Commons License
My close friend Anna Sofaer, trained as a city planner, and practicing in the field of art and photography, was one of those who–once captured by the story of the Anasazi–devoted the rest of her career to studying them. I remember well the day that she met me for lunch downtown, at Mr. Henry’s, armed with a set of photos that she had taken, right before summer solstice, while photographing petroglyphs on Fajada Butte in New Mexico.
Pointing to a dagger of light that bisected a spiral, carved in the rock face, which was located behind three large slabs of rock, she whispered: “I believe it marks the summer solstice.”
Pointing to a dagger of light that bisected a spiral, carved in the rock face, which was located behind three large slabs of rock, she whispered: “I believe it marks the summer solstice.” Dumbfounded, I thought–this is a Eureka moment! There was great excitement in her tone, as Anna anticipated what to do next. Soon thereafter, she entered into collaboration with scientists from multiple backgrounds and disciplines. She also became highly proficient in the field of archeoastronomy, and developed an excellent ethnographic style that enhanced her rapport with leaders among the Pueblo communities.
Working through her nonprofit organization the Solstice Project, Anna has, over the last thirty years, made a number of even more wonderful discoveries; the marking of the lunar cycle on Fajada Butte, the religious significance of the North Road; petroglyphs that reference the geometry of buildings in Chaco Canyon; the geometric relationships among the buildings as well as their relationships to the angles of the sun and the moon.
Integrating it all, Anna partnered with other scholars to develop an interactive model that precisely replicates the astronomical functioning of the calendrical site. Adding another dimension to her findings, Anna has also presented her work in the medium of film, which conveys far more acutely the mystical aspects of it all. Both films, The Sun Dagger and The Mystery of Chaco Caynon. are narrated by Robert Redford and distributed through PBS.
Epstein’s analysis of the Anasasi–already mentioned in a previous blog–aims to be holistic insofar as it uses a generative computational model. However, the variables that Epstein includes in his model are primarily economic. Anna Sofaer also draws her conclusions based on a computer model that incorporates the geometry of the site; but, in contrast to Epstein, her model is global in nature, taking the whole picture into account. Accordingly, her work suggests that most economic decisions made by the Anasazi were not simply individually determined; most likely, they were made by high ranking community leaders who were greatly influenced by religious/cosmological factors. Likewise, she contends that economic factors are inadequate in accounting for the sudden disappearance of the Anasazi peoples. In fact, as Anna argues, Chaco Canyon was most probably not a trading center, as many had thought, but rather a religious center located at the upper most reach of the Anasazi-related peoples. Hence, in explaining the comings and goings of the Anasazi, Anna might say that their cosmology is perhaps the best place to start. In his book, Epstein concludes that economic factors alone cannot fully account for the disappearance of the Anasazi. I wonder what more he might have learned had he incorporated the data–much of which was available at the time–that Anna had so painstakingly gathered.
Anna Sofaer is not what one might call a classic academic scholar; but she certainly had a very good idea. Stuck in their own paradigms, many traditional scholars were, at first, unwilling to take her seriously; engage with her; and include her in their communities of practice. What a shame! But now, some thirty years later, her magnificent body of work speaks for itself.
