Time and Patience: The Most Powerful Warriors. Part Five

    The calendrical station is our last subject concerning archaeoastronomy in Chaco Canyon.  This most recent subject is one of great controversy due to the willingness (seemingly) of some investigators to use irrelevant information in a relevant manner in order to aggrandise the Chacoan culture (alla Keynesian economics).  There is no need for that as Chacoan astronomy and its resultant culture are mind-boggling.  We will stick to facts alone in this article.

    Chacoans watched the sky, day and night.  Ethnographic proof is evident in every Pueblo tribe extant today and some are more ardent watchers than others but every tribe has astronomers.  This overwhelming commonality speaks volumes about the importance of the sky to Ancestral Puebloans.  

Super nova pictograph below Penasco Blanco.  Thought to be from an event in 1054 when an imploding star was visible during the day.
(Author's collection. copyright 2019)

Calendrical stations, simply put, are specific locations from which to track celestial activity across the sky.  Besides being a nice, relaxing pastime, this activity is the key to successfully charting solar activity as it relates to the time of year and - in a larger sense - when to conduct certain activities, like the planting of crops.  Properly conducted, this activity also allowed the Chacoan hierarchy to prepare the masses for upcoming festivals.  This would allow pilgrims travelling from satellite regions to be on time as well as markets to be prepared for the pending events: markets which strengthened the economy of the Chacoan World and re-inforced the validity of its ruling class.

    In Chaco Canyon there are several examples of calendrical stations and they are all linked to the fluorescence period.  In large part, these sites are associated with winter solstice prediction and are located near the Wijiji and Kin Kletso Great Houses as well Headquaters Site A (a backfilled site near Una Vida Great House).

   The original construction of Kin Kletso was completed by 1130AD (approx) and contains both anticipatory and confirmatory markers of the Winter Solstice.  Aligning the southern wall of Kin Kletso with the base of the cliff to the southeast gives a 16 - 17 day anticipation of the solar event and sighting the northern wall against the same cliff base indicates the day of the solstice itself.  Additionally, a large boulder near the north wall may have been the original calendrical station prior to construction.

    

Kin Kletso looking SW from canyon rim.  Previous calendrical station is the large rock (on canyon floor) in upper right picture in line with structure's north wall (Author's collection.  Copyright 2019)

    In the eastern end of Chaco Canyon is another great house: Wijiji.  This location was apparently built in one effort in 1110AD (approx) and was never occupied, lending credence to the supposition that it was created specifically as a calendrical station and fuelling speculation that this was an effort to revitalise a faltering religio-economy.  This great house exhibits signs of both anticipatory and confirmatory  stations in its architecture as well as in the surrounding terrain.  When standing at the northwest corner of the structure looking southeast, there is an apparent notch on the distant horizon.  16-17 days prior to the Winter Solstice sees the sun rising from just North (left) of this notch and the sun rises just to the South (right) of this notch on the solstice itself.  It is the preponderance of these visual astronomy references in Late-Bonito Phases great houses that is most interesting.  This site at Wijiji is impressive due to the number of calendrical stations in its vicinity.  To the East of Wijiji, there are boulders at three different locations that, coupled with a horizon foresight, act as calendrical stations for Winter Solstice, both equinoxes and Summer Solstice.  There is evidence that these sites were used subsequently by Pueblo tribes as well.