Chaco Canyon
The great-house canyon of the ancestral Pueblo people, where a rock painting may record the supernova of 1054.
- Location
- Northwestern New Mexico
- Modern country
- United States
- Type
- Ancestral Puebloan great houses; national historical park
- Peak
- 850–1250 CE
- Largest great house
- Pueblo Bonito
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage Site (1987)
What is Chaco Canyon known for?
Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico was a major centre of the ancestral Pueblo people from about 850 to 1250 CE. Its multi-storey 'great houses', such as Pueblo Bonito, were linked by long roads to settlements across the region. Today it is protected as Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Dark Sky Park, and it remains sacred to many Pueblo and Navajo people.
Near the Peñasco Blanco ruin, a rock painting shows a hand, a crescent moon and a large star. Many researchers think it may record the supernova of July 1054, which Chinese astronomers saw as a 'guest star' bright enough to see by day for 23 days and whose remnant is the Crab Nebula. On the morning of the explosion, the crescent moon stood close to the star.
The identification is plausible but not proven; the painting carries no date, and similar symbols appear in other contexts.
The Chaco Canyon rock painting is listed beside the Chinese record of the 1054 supernova.
Sources
- US National Park Service, 'Chaco Culture National Historical Park'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'SN 1054'Reference
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