Fajada Butte’s Sun Dagger: spiral carvings once marked the solstices and equinoxes

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Key facts

• Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, contains three stone slabs with spiral carvings forming the Sun Dagger.
• In the original arrangement, midday sunlight cast two daggers at the equinox, one through the large spiral’s centre at the summer solstice, and two beside the large spiral at the winter solstice.
• At night, moonlight at the minor lunar standstill illuminated half the large spiral, while the major standstill illuminated a corner of one of the smaller spirals.
• The major lunar standstill recurs every 18.6 years; the video argues that observing a complete cycle required at least that span.
• The slabs shifted in 1989, so the original dagger effects can no longer be seen at the site as described.

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