1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,740 Great job, you guys. 2 00:00:03,740 --> 00:00:06,120 All right, let's review. 3 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:10,000 We've seen how ancient cultures used the sun-earth connection 4 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,480 to mark the season. 5 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,760 And you've seen an activity which 6 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,880 uses the placement of shadows to record the movement 7 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,400 of the sun across the sky. 8 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:23,320 Research regarding Native American astronomy 9 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:27,400 has recently begun to gain headway in archaeoastronomy. 10 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,880 Let's look at the ways Native cultures in the Americas 11 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,000 use the sun-earth connection. 12 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,400 Nancy Maryboy and David Begay are two indigenous astronomers 13 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,200 from the Navajo Nation. 14 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:40,600 Yá'át'ééh, hello. 15 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,680 We're here in Hovenweep National Park in southern Utah. 16 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:45,640 I'm a Cherokee Navajo. 17 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,560 I live not far from here, and I'm an educator 18 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:50,120 on the Navajo Nation. 19 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:52,080 A cultural astronomer means you deal 20 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,260 with the astronomy of your own culture. 21 00:00:55,260 --> 00:00:59,700 And we put things within the context of a native worldview. 22 00:00:59,700 --> 00:01:02,020 Right behind me on the boulder, you 23 00:01:02,020 --> 00:01:06,140 can see an indication of a solar phenomena. 24 00:01:06,140 --> 00:01:08,020 On the boulder, there's two images. 25 00:01:08,020 --> 00:01:09,780 One's a concentric circle. 26 00:01:09,780 --> 00:01:11,280 One's a spiral. 27 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,060 As the sun begins to rise, shafts of light 28 00:01:14,060 --> 00:01:15,580 come in from each direction. 29 00:01:15,580 --> 00:01:17,780 And as the sun continues to rise, 30 00:01:17,780 --> 00:01:19,820 the lights meet in the center. 31 00:01:19,820 --> 00:01:22,260 This only happens once a year. 32 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,820 This phenomena occurs on the longest day of the year 33 00:01:25,820 --> 00:01:29,040 and is a very appropriate way to mark time. 34 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,500 This can be a very harsh environment to live in. 35 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:32,700 It can be hot. 36 00:01:32,700 --> 00:01:33,600 It can be cold. 37 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:35,540 And it can be very dry. 38 00:01:35,540 --> 00:01:38,540 In order to survive, people had to live in accordance 39 00:01:38,540 --> 00:01:40,340 with the natural environment. 40 00:01:40,340 --> 00:01:43,620 And that meant the natural cosmic environment, the sun, 41 00:01:43,620 --> 00:01:45,440 the moon, and the stars. 42 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:47,980 It was very important to track the path 43 00:01:47,980 --> 00:01:51,300 of the sun and the moon and certain constellations. 44 00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:54,260 And to do that, people used natural markers 45 00:01:54,260 --> 00:01:58,060 like petroglyphs and sun and moon alignments. 46 00:01:58,060 --> 00:02:00,140 Remember, there was no watches. 47 00:02:00,140 --> 00:02:01,540 There was no timekeepers. 48 00:02:01,540 --> 00:02:03,820 There was no calendars. 49 00:02:03,820 --> 00:02:05,980 My name is David Begay. 50 00:02:05,980 --> 00:02:09,260 I am a cultural astronomer. 51 00:02:09,260 --> 00:02:12,780 I've been living out here for many years. 52 00:02:12,780 --> 00:02:14,980 My clan is Maidishkeeshni. 53 00:02:14,980 --> 00:02:20,460 This clan is a descendant from the Jemez Pueblo people. 54 00:02:20,460 --> 00:02:23,220 And here is one of the structure 55 00:02:23,220 --> 00:02:25,440 at Hovindweet National Monument. 56 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:27,460 This structure had many purposes, 57 00:02:27,460 --> 00:02:30,100 one of which was an observatory. 58 00:02:30,100 --> 00:02:32,340 The ancient had a profound respect 59 00:02:32,340 --> 00:02:34,800 for the movement of the sun and the stars. 60 00:02:36,260 --> 00:02:38,180 On the longest day of the year, 61 00:02:38,180 --> 00:02:40,580 the sun shines through an opening 62 00:02:40,580 --> 00:02:43,320 and the light falls on a marker. 63 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,860 What people experience here is really a cultural experience. 64 00:02:47,860 --> 00:02:50,220 It's a whole life experience. 65 00:02:50,980 --> 00:02:52,740 People felt the movement of the sun. 66 00:02:52,740 --> 00:02:55,980 People felt the movement of the moon. 67 00:02:55,980 --> 00:02:59,020 It was a daily experience. 68 00:02:59,020 --> 00:03:01,200 Among the Navajo people, for the sun, 69 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:03,860 when it reaches summer solstice, 70 00:03:03,860 --> 00:03:06,660 it's a total life experience. 71 00:03:06,660 --> 00:03:09,300 People used to talk about the solstice 72 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:11,300 being a four-day phenomenon. 73 00:03:11,300 --> 00:03:12,600 People used to say, 74 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,340 Tintinabilka, the sun spent four days 75 00:03:16,340 --> 00:03:18,860 before it starts moving back the other way. 76 00:03:18,860 --> 00:03:21,980 So it's really something that was experienced. 77 00:03:21,980 --> 00:03:22,900 It was talked about. 78 00:03:22,900 --> 00:03:23,940 It was a part of the culture. 79 00:03:23,940 --> 00:03:26,140 It's been passed on through the generation. 80 00:03:26,140 --> 00:03:30,340 I think people talk about these movements 81 00:03:30,340 --> 00:03:32,020 in terms of days. 82 00:03:32,020 --> 00:03:35,140 I'm not sure if you can really call it special math. 83 00:03:35,140 --> 00:03:38,340 I don't think tracking the sun down to the second 84 00:03:38,340 --> 00:03:40,400 was important at that time. 85 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:43,300 These buildings and boulders 86 00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:45,380 are remnants of ancient civilizations, 87 00:03:45,380 --> 00:03:48,780 much like the ruins in Rome, the ruins in Greece. 88 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:53,220 They're still very relevant to us out here in the Southwest. 89 00:03:53,220 --> 00:03:55,060 We still see the same sky, 90 00:03:55,060 --> 00:03:58,100 and we're in awe of the technology that was employed 91 00:03:58,100 --> 00:03:59,220 to build these buildings 92 00:03:59,220 --> 00:04:02,260 and capture these solar and lunar alignments. 93 00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:04,100 Today, we look in the sky. 94 00:04:04,100 --> 00:04:06,140 We use some of the same knowledge 95 00:04:06,140 --> 00:04:08,540 that the ancestral Pueblans used. 96 00:04:08,540 --> 00:04:09,740 We use it for planting. 97 00:04:09,740 --> 00:04:11,560 We use it for setting ceremonies, 98 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,600 and we use it to keep the earth in order. 99 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:16,580 The balance between earth and sky 100 00:04:16,580 --> 00:04:18,980 is still very important to Native peoples. 101 00:04:22,300 --> 00:04:24,780 Thanks, Nancy, and thanks, David. 102 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:25,620 You know, guys, 103 00:04:25,620 --> 00:04:28,140 one of the earliest Native American structures 104 00:04:28,140 --> 00:04:31,860 to observe the sun and the stars is Casa Rinconada, 105 00:04:31,860 --> 00:04:35,940 located in the Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. 106 00:04:35,940 --> 00:04:39,180 Casa Rinconada is a large kiva. 107 00:04:39,180 --> 00:04:41,700 Kivas are large, circular rooms 108 00:04:41,700 --> 00:04:45,500 used for ceremonies by Native American cultures. 109 00:04:45,540 --> 00:04:49,020 Like Hovenweep, on the day of the summer solstice, 110 00:04:49,020 --> 00:04:51,980 a beam of light from an opening in the kiva 111 00:04:51,980 --> 00:04:56,300 precisely illuminates a niche in the far wall. 112 00:04:56,300 --> 00:04:59,580 For years, Chaco Canyon was primarily seen 113 00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:00,780 as a trade center, 114 00:05:00,780 --> 00:05:03,900 but with the advent of archeoastronomy, 115 00:05:03,900 --> 00:05:05,700 Chaco is beginning to be seen 116 00:05:05,700 --> 00:05:08,980 as a center of astronomy and cosmology. 117 00:05:08,980 --> 00:05:10,580 So far on today's program, 118 00:05:10,580 --> 00:05:12,140 we have seen how the relationship 119 00:05:12,140 --> 00:05:13,980 between the sun and the earth 120 00:05:14,020 --> 00:05:16,700 weaved a connection between all ancient cultures. 121 00:05:16,700 --> 00:05:19,060 Now, much of the information from those cultures 122 00:05:19,060 --> 00:05:20,380 has been lost to us. 123 00:05:20,380 --> 00:05:23,620 However, other cultures have recorded that information, 124 00:05:23,620 --> 00:05:26,700 and now that information is being interpreted. 125 00:05:26,700 --> 00:05:28,900 For a look at one of these ancient cultures, 126 00:05:28,900 --> 00:05:30,500 let's return to Dr. Stenner.