Peñasco Blanco
Peñasco Blanco ("White Bluff" in Spanish) is a Chacoan Ancestral Puebloan great house and notable archaeological site located in Chaco Canyon, a canyon in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. The pueblo consists of an arc-shaped room block, part of an oval enclosing a plaza and great kiva, along with two great kivas outside the great house. The pueblo was built atop the canyon's southern rim to the northwest of the great houses in the main section of the canyon.
 Peñasco Blanco, a Chacoan Great House | |
 .svg.png.webp){kind=icon} Location within New Mexico today | |
| Location | San Juan County, New Mexico,  USA |
|---|---|
| Region | San Juan County, New Mexico |
| Coordinates | 36°04′53″N 108°00′11″W |
| History | |
| Founded | 900 |
| Abandoned | 1125 |
| Cultures | Chacoan civilization |
| Site notes | |
| Responsible body: private | |
The building was constructed in five distinct stages between AD 900 and 1125, during the Pueblo III Period. A cliff painting (the "Supernova Pictograph") nearby may record the sighting of a supernova on July 5, 1054 AD.[α][1]
Notes
α. ^ The Crab Nebula, now a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus, was the result of the event in question; it attained peak brilliance on the date that the Chacoans presumably sighted it.[1]
Citations
- Kelley & Milone 2004, p. 413.
References
- Kelley, DH; Milone, EF (2004), Exploring Ancient Skies: an encyclopedic survey of archaeoastronomy, Springer, ISBN 0-387-95310-8
External links
- Peñasco Blanco, a Photo Gallery
Media related to Peñasco Blanco at Wikimedia Commons
