ANCILLARY REPORT #1 - The Hooper Ranch Pueblo Sun Dagger Shrine Revisited - revealing greater regional significance
ABSTRACT
Located on a cliff overlooking the site of the Hooper Ranch Pueblo ruins on the banks of the Little Colorado River in east-central Arizona, a natural rock formation first casts a dynamic shadow-line, followed by an illuminating sun dagger, onto a panel of ancient rock art images during the time of the yearly summer solstice. Symbolically, these two natural phenomena trace the very same path across a purposefully placed set of ancient petroglyphs.
At different times of the day both the shadow-line and the sun dagger appear to emanate from the hand of a man-made anthropomorphic figure, before moving forward to bisect a spiral figure and subsequently, a few minutes later, to slice through the middle of an S-shaped image. Curiously, this sun dagger is very similar to the famous man-made solar marker located upon Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon. Curiously, both of these sun daggers project point angles of 17 degrees.
Symbolically, the centerlines of the three nearby Hooper Ranch Pueblo kivas were intentionally constructed so that they align with the location of this ancient sun dagger shrine.
In addition, and as the direct result of this ongoing research endeavor, a very large stone effigy of the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl that was removed from the site of the Hooper Ranch Pueblo long before its excavation by the Field Museum in 1961 has now been recovered. This unique find greatly enhances our understanding of the overall ceremonial significance that the Pueblo complex had for ancient Native populations.
A link to the paper can be found here.
A link to a video of the Sun Dagger's 2.5 hour progression can be seen here.
Located on a cliff overlooking the site of the Hooper Ranch Pueblo ruins on the banks of the Little Colorado River in east-central Arizona, a natural rock formation first casts a dynamic shadow-line, followed by an illuminating sun dagger, onto a panel of ancient rock art images during the time of the yearly summer solstice. Symbolically, these two natural phenomena trace the very same path across a purposefully placed set of ancient petroglyphs.
At different times of the day both the shadow-line and the sun dagger appear to emanate from the hand of a man-made anthropomorphic figure, before moving forward to bisect a spiral figure and subsequently, a few minutes later, to slice through the middle of an S-shaped image. Curiously, this sun dagger is very similar to the famous man-made solar marker located upon Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon. Curiously, both of these sun daggers project point angles of 17 degrees.
Symbolically, the centerlines of the three nearby Hooper Ranch Pueblo kivas were intentionally constructed so that they align with the location of this ancient sun dagger shrine.
In addition, and as the direct result of this ongoing research endeavor, a very large stone effigy of the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl that was removed from the site of the Hooper Ranch Pueblo long before its excavation by the Field Museum in 1961 has now been recovered. This unique find greatly enhances our understanding of the overall ceremonial significance that the Pueblo complex had for ancient Native populations.
A link to the paper can be found here.
A link to a video of the Sun Dagger's 2.5 hour progression can be seen here.
