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ETV’s National Presentation of “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon” Premieres This Summer on Public Television

For Immediate Release
May 5, 2009

Columbia, SC…On Monday, June 22 at 7 p.m., ETV presents The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Robert Redford, this film examines the deep mysteries presented by the massive prehistoric architectural remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico.

Directed by Anna Sofaer, this Solstice Project documentary is distributed nationally by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Viewers outside of South Carolina should check their local listings for dates and times.

As revealed in the film, the discoveries of Chaco Canyon show that between 850 and 1150 AD, the Chacoan people designed and constructed massive ceremonial buildings in a complex celestial pattern throughout a vast desert region. Aerial and time lapse footage, computer modeling and interviews with scholars illustrate how the Chacoan culture designed, oriented and located its major buildings in relationship to the sun and moon. Pueblo leaders are featured in the film and discuss the significance of Chaco to the Pueblo world today.

Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar, spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland? Why did this society, ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, choose to establish the center of their world in the middle of such an arid, barren land? And why, after constructing buildings the size of the Roman Coliseum, did these same people deliberately seal them and abruptly leave? These enigmas have puzzled archaeologists for centuries.

Throughout this hour-long program, substantial evidence is presented that demonstrates the Chacoan people expressed a complex solar and lunar cosmology in their magnificent architecture. The discoveries documented in the film have transformed scientific understanding of this site -- one of the most elaborate and mysterious of ancient Native-American ruins -- and are revolutionizing perceptions of the Chacoan civilization.

The Mystery of Chaco Canyon DVDs can be purchased by calling 1-800-553-7752 or by visiting the ETV Store at www.etvstore.org.

The Solstice Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of ancient cultures of the American Southwest. Founded in 1978 by Anna Sofaer, The Solstice Project was established to study, document and preserve the remarkable Sun Dagger—a celestial calendar of the ancient Pueblo Indians—and other achievements of ancient Southwestern culture.

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.

Academy Award-winning actor Robert Redford narrates "The Mystery of Chaco Canyon." Photo Credit: Ken Regan

Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. Photo Credit: Tom Till