The Mystery of Chaco Canyon: Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy

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History Documentary hosted by Robert Redford, published by PBS in 1999 - English narration

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Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland? Why did this society, ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, choose to establish the center of their world in the middle of such an arid, barren land? And why, after constructing buildings the size of the Roman Coliseum, did these same people deliberately seal them and abruptly leave? These enigmas have puzzled archaeologists for centuries. This program presents substantial evidence that the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their magnificent architecture. The discoveries documented in the film have transformed scientific understanding of this site — one of the most elaborate and mysterious of ancient Native-American ruins — and are revolutionizing perceptions of the Chacoan civilization. THE MYSTERY OF CHACO CANYON presents new discoveries about the intricate astronomical knowledge of an ancient Pueblo Indian people. Their immense buildings in Chaco Canyon, a remote, barely habitable canyon in northwestern New Mexico, have been the subject of heated archaeological debate for decades. The documentary is the summation of 20 years of research. The film reveals that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern throughout a vast desert region. Begun more than a thousand years ago and taking twelve generations to complete, Chaco Canyon was thought to be an ancient trading center. This film, how-ever, shows Chaco Canyon to be the center of a complex ceremonial system involving the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. Dramatic aerial and time-lapse footage, computer modeling, and interviews with scholars reveal how the Chacoan people designed, oriented, and located twelve massive buildings to express a profound knowledge of an order in the universe. Members of the Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna Pueblos offer insights to their ancestors, and speak of the spiritual significance of Chaco Canyon in Pueblo culture today. While the Chacoans left no written text to help us to understand their culture, their thoughts are preserved in the language of their architecture, roads and light markings. Landscape, directions, sun and moon, and movement of shadow and light were the materials used by the Chacoan architects and builders to express their knowledge of an order in the universe. Written and Directed by Anna Sofaer ; The Solstice Project and Bullfrog Films Production

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[edit] Technical Specs

Video Codec: H.264 CABAC Main@L3
Video Bitrate: 1 560 Kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Display Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Frames Per Second: 29.970 fps
Audio Codec: E-AC3
Audio Bitrate: 224 kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 55 min 42 s
Number Of Parts: 1
Part Size: 711 MB
Source: WEB DL
Capper: DocFreak08