Lidar Reveals Sacred Roads Near Chaco Canyon

News February 26, 2025

Sunrise over Mount Taylor, New Mexico
Robert S. Weiner
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CHACO CANYON, NEW MEXICO—Lidar technology has identified a 1,000-year-old sacred road system near Chaco Canyon, Live Science reports. The discovery was made at the Gasco site around 50 miles south of Chaco, where ancestral Pueblo peoples built impressive structures and ceremonial centers between the ninth and twelfth century. Researchers already knew of the existence of one ancient road in the Gasco area, but this path proved to be much longer, stretching for over 4 miles and not just a few hundred feet, as previously thought. The new study also revealed a second parallel road located about 115 feet south of the first one. Both thoroughfares align with the sunrise on the winter solstice over Mount Taylor, which was, and still is today, a sacred mountain to indigenous peoples in the region. Chacoan roads were monumental constructions typically cut directly into the sandstone bedrock and normally reached a width of 30 feet, much wider than they needed to be without the existence of wheeled vehicles or pack animals. This suggests they were used for ceremonial processions and rituals rather than just transportation. "One of the really exciting things about the work we've been doing with Chacoan roads is that they're forcing us to reconceptualize what a road might be, what a road might mean," said Dartmouth College archaeologist Robert Weiner. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. For more on Chaco Canyon, go to "Letter from Chihuahua: Cliff Dwellers of the Sierra Madre."

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