Anna Sofaer
At summer solstice in 1977, Anna Sofaer rediscovered the Sun Dagger site near the summit of Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Following this finding, Sofaer conducted three decades of research in Chaco Canyon and the larger Chaco region with further astronomical findings and documentation. Establishing the non-profit Solstice Project for this research, she coordinated interdisciplinary teams — including astronomers, archaeologists, anthropologists, architects, computer animators and remote sensing experts. Sofaer published this research in eleven scientific papers, nine of which were republished in her book “Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology.”
Sofaer’s work has included extensive educational presentations with schools, universities and archeological groups, as well as consultations with Pueblo educators for whom Chaco is a place of primary significance in their history. These consultations with Puebloan educators have guided Sofaer with sensitive cultural and historical insights throughout the decades of her study.
The Solstice Project has directed attention to the need for protecting Chaco’s fragile sites through alerting the public to numerous threats of energy extraction and general deterioration and calling for protective actions by the agencies responsible for the region. The Project’s extensive documentation has created an archival record of the areas of its study, which it has shared in its numerous publications and educational films.
In 1982, Sofaer produced, directed and co-wrote The Sun Dagger, an hour-long documentary narrated by Robert Redford and broadcast nationally by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). This film documents the Sun Dagger site’s intricate markings of the solar and lunar cycles with light patterns on spiral petroglyphs. The late Alfonso Ortiz of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and the late Joseph Campbell express poignant insights into the meaning and purpose of the Chacoans’ symbolic joining of the sun and moon.
In 2000, Sofaer produced, directed and co-wrote The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, an hour-long film also narrated by Redford and broadcast nationally by PBS and by the National Geographic Society on its international cable network. This film documents the solar and lunar alignments of the Chaco culture’s primary architecture and the cosmographic alignment of the Great North Road. Several archeologists and Pueblo people speak of the significance of these findings.
In 2010, Sofaer, with archaeologist Richard Friedman, through the Solstice Project, recorded The Great North Road with LIDAR (aerial laser scanning). This effort, funded by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, precisely documented the Chacoans’ remarkably elaborate alignment to the North. It also affirmed the great efficacy of LIDAR to precisely record other Chaco “roads.” Following the Solstice Project’s nomination, the Great North Road was designated as one of the “Eleven Most Endangered Sites” by the NTHP.
In 2024, Sofaer produced and directed a third documentary, Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon, broadcast nationally by PBS. The film explores the great expanse of the Chaco world — a region of the American Southwest nearly twice the size of Ireland. It documents the common ritual architecture, often with astronomical alignments, set in remote landscapes throughout this region and hundreds of miles of subtle and fragile linear alignments — remarkably wide and straight — that are now understood not to be utilitarian roads. In new revelations, the film shows how these features connect the Chacoans’ ceremonial Great Houses with places of power in the landscape. Archaeologists reveal evidence of their massive development for primarily ritual use. Pueblo people give moving insights into their spiritual significance. Adriel Heisey’s magnificent aerial cinematography shows the sweeping expanse of the Chacoans’ works across one of the most challenging environments in the world.
Sofaer and the Solstice Project continue their efforts to protect Chaco sites from damage of energy resource development and other invasive intrusions on the ancient landscape.
