Iwaski Contemporary Art - Mystery of Chaco Canyon

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Mystery of Chaco Canyon

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"Rain Chant" from Native Brotherhood by Ruben Romero and Robert Tree Cody used by permission.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Penasco Blanco - Dances at the Fall Equinox
Triptych 30" x 40" (each panel)

I grew up near San Juan Pueblo in Northern New Mexico and spoke the language Tewa as a child. My playmate was a Pueblo boy, Anselmo Ortiz, who later became a highly respected archaeologist. My father was an archaeologist and I spent many hours exploring many of the ancient sites in New Mexico. My interest in these sites became renewed upon reading Anna Sofaer's book, Chaco Astronomy an Ancient American Cosmology. I would refer you to her book for an understanding of the very complex, sacred geometry that aligned many of the sacred sites with each other along the great North/South axis, but also to the greater universe.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Summer/Winter Solstice
Diptych 48" x 78" each panel

Mystery of Chaco Canyon Summer Solstice Ceremony at Pueblo Bonito Diptych 30" x 79" and 59" x 84"	The Anasazi Indians occupied Chaco Canyon from about 400 to 1300 A.D. The early inhabitants left evidence of a skilled and highly organized society. They constructed large ceremonial centers and developed extensive systems of roads, communication and trade. Mystery of Chaco Canyon Composition #201 40½" x 33"
Mystery of Chaco Canyon The Moon The Sun and 19.1 Years Triptych 198" X 72"

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Modern Survey of the Great North/South Axis
22" x 30"

So why are these ruins so mysterious and why have they puzzled archaeologists for years?

First, Chaco Canyon is a massive enigmatic site that was constructed between 850 and 1150 A.D. with as many as 700 rooms with many large kivas for spiritual practices. Many of the buildings are three to four stories tall. The sophisticated and elaborate sites were connected with other sites many miles away on the great North/South axis with incredible accuracy.

The total complex took hundreds of thousands of man-hours to build.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Ladder Connecting the Earth with the Greater Universe
33" x 40½"

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Spirit Dances
Two pieces 28" x 48" and 12" x 48"

So the questions are...

#1.) Why was this gigantic site, where as many as 10,000 people at a time convened, built on an inhospitable site far from wood and water. Some days the temperature could reach 120-degrees in the summer and 40-degrees below zero in the winter. Was this one of the great power centers of the earth?

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Spirit Journey - Returning to Sipapu
48" x 60"

#2.) Why were there hundreds of rooms elaborately constructed with beautiful masonry - not suitable for habitation? Did the "rooms" hold and contain power in a way we don't understand? Mystery of Chaco Canyon Composition #204 40" x 33"	Mystery of Chaco Canyon Composition #205 33" x 40½"	#3.) Was this a great pilgrimage center and the buildings only symbolical? It is known that from the pyramids and temples of Egypt, to England's Stonehenge, ancient people locked their buildings to the movement of the sun and moon.
#4.) It is known that thousands of people convened here and yet no cemetary has been found... why?

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Sacred Horned Toad
20" x 30"

#5.) Why were all the exterior and interior sites aligned in a complex manner to synchronize with the solar and lunar cycles and some to catch the shadow of the moon in an alignment that occurs every 19.1 years? It is now believed by many that these building sites and sacred geometry were one of the world's great centers for astronomy and cosmology.

#6.) What was the purpose of the spiral petroglyphs on a vertical cliff at Fajada Butte? These petroglyphs are illuminated in a changing pattern of light throughout the year and mark the solstices and equinoxes with a pattern of light called the "Sun Dagger". These petroglyphs capture the seasonal changes with a remarkable degree of accuracy.

#7.) What was the purpose of the elaborate and formalized roads that appeared to go nowhere? Earlier archaeologists called the Great North Road, a "road overbuilt and underused - it has no functional explanation". (These roads were as wide as a modern two-lane highway and were excavated to a smooth surface with masonry construction covering over 200 kilometers.)

It has been suggested the the Great North Road was an expression of spiritual values. The road in Tewa Pueblo language translates, "channel for life's breath". These roads can represent the road traveled by the people to the middle place where they emerged from the worlds below - the Sipapu. When people died they returned to Sipapu - their mother in the womb of the earth.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Composition #211
40" x 33"

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Composition #206
40½" x 33"

#8.) Perhaps the greatest mystery of all comes from Pueblo oral tradition that it was a place of great power but the power turned evil. What happened? It is noted that this magnificent structure at one time had all the rooms bricked up and the great beams (over 215,000 that were carried over 80 kilometers) that supported the kivas were burned. We will never know what happened to these Pueblo sites that created such a complex and grand cosmological order.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Composition #212
40" x 30"

In this series I have attempted to capture with my art, some of the mystery and awe of this great culture that constructed complex ceremonial building that intereacted with the movement of the moon, sun, and stars, as one of the world's great ancient centers for astronomy and cosmology.

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Gathering Storm I
40" x 32"

Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Gathering Storm II
40" x 32"

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