Fajada Butte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fajada Butte | |
|---|---|
 Fajada Butte at sunset. |
|
| Elevation | 6,623 feet (2,019 metres) |
| Location | New Mexico, USA |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | USGS Pueblo Bonito |
| Type | Sandstone rock |
| Age of rock | Cretaceous |
| First ascent | circa 850 AD |
| Easiest route | closed to visitors |
Fajada Butte is a butte in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a park in New Mexico.
Fajada Butte (Banded Butte) rises 115 meters above the Canyon floor on the Chacra Mesa. Although there is no water source on the butte, there are ruins of small cliff dwellings in the higher regions of the butte. Analysis of fragments of pottery found on Fajada show that the butte was inhabited in the tenth century.
The remains of a 100-meter-high, 230-meter-long ramp on the southwestern face of the butte would have made the climb up the steep cliffs much easier. Considering that this was a huge building project even when one takes into account the magnitude of other Chacoan sites such as Casa Rinconada and Pueblo Bonito, many people believe that the Butte must have had considerable ceremonial importance for the Chacoan people.
Perhaps the most famous site in Chaco Canyon is near the top of Fajada Butte. The three slab site is on the eastern side of the butte. At about 11:15 a.m. on the summer solstice, a sun dagger pierces a spiral petroglyph on the cliff wall behind the slabs. Similar sun daggers mark the winter solstice and equinoxes.
In 1982 the National Park Service closed off access to the butte to the public due to the delicate nature of the site; with increasing tourism, erosion was becoming a worrying issue.
[edit] References
- Carlson, John B. and W. James Judge, ed., Astronomy and Ceremony in the Prehistoric Southwest, Papers of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, 2 (Albuquerque, [1984]) ISBN 0-913535-03-2
- Palca, Joseph. "Sun dagger misses its mark." Science 244.n4912 (June 30, 1989): 1538(1).
- Sofaer, Anna, ed., Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology, (Santa Fe: Ocean Tree Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0-943734-46-0 Reprints many of the papers from the Solstice Project on the Fajada Butte "sun dagger".
[edit] External links
- The Solstice Project has done extensive research on the Fajada Butte Sun Dagger.
