SOLSTICE

In the northern hemisphere Winter Solstice this year will occur, for us in US Central Time Zone, at at 11:30 PM - tonight. In the UK, at the same point, clocks will say 5:30 AM GMT on 22 December. We've arrived at the shortest day, longest night - after which light will begin, slowly, to return. In the southern hemisphere, of course, Summer Solstice is being celebrated. Wherever you are,
SOLSTICE GREETINGS TO ALL!


An urge to mark and honour solstices and equinoxes - has to figure somehow in our DNA. Humans have been doing so for as long as we are able to see into the distant past. Indigenous people of every corner of the world had an awareness of the Sun's changing path through the sky. Their lives relied heavily on the Sun's lighting and warming of the land, and on its part in producing life-sustaining vegetation and crops.

Countless structures, still visible, served ancient civilisations as natural calendars to mark solstices, equinoxes, and sites of sacred ceremony, honouring the Sun. Britain's Stonehenge is one of the most famous of these. I read an article just this week on the BBC website, concerning expert research on the source of the stones. It appears that some of them originated in Wales. How the dickens those massive stones could have been moved to Wiltshire in England remains a fascinating mystery to which we shall never know the answer.

Here in Oklahoma, nearest natural structure used for tracking the Sun's path is in New Mexico, the state adjoining Oklahoma's panhandle, to the west.

At the southern entrance to an area known as Chaco Canyon stands 443ft high Fajada Butte, where in 1977 Dr. Anna Sofaer discovered the "Sun Dagger" - a petroglyph thought to have been carved some 1000 years ago by an ancient people, the Anasazi, who inhabited the area. Archaeologists still debate when a distinct Anasazi culture emerged, but the current consensus suggests they first appeared around 1200 B.C. The Ancient Puebloans first settled in the plateau area where water was plentiful, with their initial locations at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta. Later they spanned across the entire Colorado plateau including northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado.
The Anasazi were ancestors of modern Pueblo peoples. (See also HERE)


We haven't visited Chaco Canyon, but we've been close to it. In 2005 we visited Mesa Verde, in the same general area, though now it lies across the manmade state border in Colorado. The Anasazi abandoned the area around 700 years ago, for reasons unknown, one possibility is crop failure due to climate deterioration.

It was about a 40 minute drive from the highway, along winding roads up to Mesa Verde, then a long walk downhill to reach the dwellings site, and an exhausting one back up, at 7,000 ft. above sea level, and in the heat, the thinner air gets to you! We explored the remains of ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings, 3 photos from our trip are below - that's my back in #4. the first photo is not one of ours, but from HERE.

Artwork at THIS website gives an idea of the populated cliff dwellings in ancient times.

Solstice

As we in the north prepare to welcome the Winter Solstice, in the southern hemisphere Summer Solstice is being celebrated....whichever it be for passing readers, Summer or Winter -

GREETINGS TO ALL !

An urge to mark these points in time must be in our blood - in our DNA. Humans have been doing so for as long as we are able to see, back into the distant past.

Countless structures around the world served ancient civilisations as natural calendars to mark solstices, equinoxes, and sites of sacred ceremony. I think the nearest such structure to our present home is in New Mexico, the state adjoining Oklahoma's panhandle, to the west.

At the southern entrance to an area known as Chaco Canyon stands 443ft high Fajada Butte (above right).

Here, in 1977 Dr. Anna Sofaer discovered the "Sun Dagger" - a petroglyph thought to have been carved some 1000 years ago by an ancient people who inhabited the area, the Anasazi, ancestors of the modern Pueblo peoples. The ancestral Puebloans were a prehistoric Native American civilization centered around the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States (where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet). The "dagger" is the only known site in the world that marks the extreme positions of both the moon and the sun.

"A large circular spiral and a small spiral are pecked in the cliff behind three large stone slabs. At midday on the summer solstice, the sun shines between the stone slabs and creates a dagger of light that bisects the large spiral. On midday of the winter solstice, two daggers bracket the large spiral. During the spring and the fall equinoxes, a small dagger of light bisects the small spiral. The slabs also cast shadow on the large spiral that marks the moon’s eighteen point six years cycle of its orbit" (Chaco Culture Brochure).





We haven't visited Chaco Canyon, but in 2005 we did visit Mesa Verde, which is in the same area. We explored the remains of ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings - an amazing experience.






(A couple of photos from our trip)

The Anasazi abandoned Chaco Canyon around 700 years ago, for reasons unknown, possibly due to climate deterioration, and crop failure.