Was the Fajada Butte spiral made and used as a solar calendar?
Most likely: the site was a sun shrine where the solstices and equinoxes were watched and honoured, not a calendar for…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.
Where it stands
Five answers have been proposed. The site was a sun shrine where the solstices and equinoxes were watched and honoured, not a calendar for… leads, with evidence 2 for: partly supported by its tests. Four are still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.
Why it matters
The Sun Dagger is the prototype of the light-marking sites of the Southwest. If people set or shaped the slabs to mark the solstices and equinoxes, it is a precise instrument; if they carved spirals where a natural rockfall already cast light, it is a marker of another kind; if the pattern is chance, it is neither. The site stopped working as recorded in 1989, so the question now rests on the photographs and the model[1][2][3].
Answers 5
History
- Sofaer et al. puts forward: the slabs were set or shaped so that midday light marks the solstices and equinoxes on the spirals, and the…
- Sofaer et al.: at summer solstice a single dagger of light crosses the centre of the large spiral; at the winter solstice…For: The slabs were set or shaped so that midday light marks the solstices and equinoxes on the spirals, and the…
- Newman et al. puts forward: the slabs are a natural rockfall and the spirals were carved where its light fell, so the marking is…
- Newman et al.: the slabs could have fallen into their positions naturally.Against: The slabs were set or shaped so that midday light marks the solstices and equinoxes on the spirals, and the…
- Newman et al.: a geological assessment found that the slabs could have reached their positions by rockfall.For: The slabs are a natural rockfall and the spirals were carved where its light fell, so the marking is…
- Zeilik puts forward: the site was a sun shrine where the solstices and equinoxes were watched and honoured, not a calendar for…
- Schaefer & Stamm puts forward: the light play on the spirals is coincidence; the spirals were not placed to mark the sun.
- Schaefer & Stamm: across the Southwest, light-marking sites cluster at the solstices and equinoxes far above the chance…For: The slabs were set or shaped so that midday light marks the solstices and equinoxes on the spirals, and the…
- Schaefer & Stamm: a 2020 review treats the slabs and their edges as natural.For: The slabs are a natural rockfall and the spirals were carved where its light fell, so the marking is…
- Schaefer & Stamm: ethnography of the descendant peoples links sun daggers with sun shrines, where a sun-watcher kept vigil with…For: The site was a sun shrine where the solstices and equinoxes were watched and honoured, not a calendar for…
- Schaefer & Stamm: two regional surveys find the declinations of light-marking sites clustered at the solstices and equinoxes,…Against: The light play on the spirals is coincidence; the spirals were not placed to mark the sun.
- Schaefer & Stamm: chance coincidences of light and spiral are common, 20 to 33 per cent of candidate sites in one field test.For: The light play on the spirals is coincidence; the spirals were not placed to mark the sun.
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