Talk Thursday at Bradbury Science Museum
Researcher Anna Sofaer will discuss her 30 years studying Chaco Canyon and the resulting book, Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology, during a talk Thursday at the Bradbury Science Museum.
The talk begins at 7 p.m., and is free and open to the public.
In 1977, Sofaer witnessed an astonishing phenomenon high on a butte in New Mexico’s western deserts during the summer solstice: a single shaft of light perfectly bisected a spiral petroglyph, inscribed there long ago by the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people. The significance of this “Sun Dagger” image led Sofaer on a 30-year odyssey of intense investigation with a team of geographers, archaeologists, astronomers, and Native American scholars to recover the meaning of astronomical expressions seen throughout the architecture and art of the ancient Chaco culture.
Sofaer will be signing copies of her book at the Otowi Station Bookstore next door to the Bradbury Science Museum prior to her talk.
For more information, call the Bradbury Science Museum at 7-4444 or go to the museum's Web page. The museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos. Admission to the museum is free.
The museum is part of the Community Programs Office (CPO).
