May
24
/ 2022
Near the entrance to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA is an imposing butte that had sacred significance to the ancestral Pueblo culture, who inhabited Chaco Canyon up until about 1150 AD. On Fajada Butte, behind three stone slabs, are petroglyphs that were used to capture the yearly motion of the Sun, and possibly the Moon. The site is known as the Sun Dagger, because of how Sunlight forms the image of a dagger going directly through the middle of the spiral during the summer solstice. The Sun Dagger was sacred to the people of Chaco Canyon, who would make regular pilgrimages to the site. It also illustrates the role that astronomy played in the ancient Chacoan religion and society. The
