Rediscoverer of Chaco’s Sun Dagger to meet public

By Independent staff

The sun sets over the Chaco Canyon National Monument on Saturday evening. In 1907 the area of Chaco Wash known as Chaco Canyon was named a national monument. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

GALLUP — The woman who rediscovered the Sun Dagger solstice site at Chaco Canyon in 1977 will sign copies of her new book and show her documentary film on Saturday.

The public is invited to meet Anna Sofaer at a reception that runs from 3:30 to 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Red Mesa Center, 105 W. Hill. Sofaer will sign copies of her book, Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology, following the 3:30 p.m. screening of “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon,” a one-hour documentary narrated by Robert Redford.

While working on a field project atop Fajada Butte in Chaco Culture National Historical Park in midsummer of 1977, Sofaer witnessed a remarkable phenomenon: a single shaft of light perfectly bisecting a spiral petroglyph inscribed there long ago by ancestral pueblo people.

Recognizing the significance of this site, Sofaer began a three-decade odyssey of intense investigation to recover the meaning of astronomical expressions throughout the architecture and rock art at Chaco Canyon. These efforts changed forever the public’s understanding of what has been termed “America’s Stonehenge.”

The documentary film, which Sofaer produced, explores the astronomy of the ancestral pueblo people. After the documentary’s screening, Sofaer will speak briefly on recent findings in the Chaco Cultural area and then sign copies of her book, which will be available for $25. The 176-page, fully illustrated book from Ocean Tree Books of Santa Fe, brings together all the major research work of Sofaer and her associates, including anthropologists, astronomers, geographers, and modern pueblo scholars and elders.

Chaco Astronomy describes not only the famous Sun Dagger site but also the lunar and solar alignments of the 12 major Chaco buildings. The book also addresses the cosmological implications of the Great North Road and presents a remarkable digital reconstruction of the original three-slab location on Fajada Butte.

The Red Mesa Center is located next to the Octavia Fellin Public Library.

Information: Martin Link at (505) 863-6459.