New Light on Chaco Canyon

by David Grant Noble (editor)

David Grant Noble has assembled a collection of nine essays written for the nonspecialist by scholars who shed new light and offer new speculation on the intriguing prehistoric Chaco culture. The essays cover archaelology on the Canyon; Chacoan art, architechture, rock art and astronomy; the puzzling network of roads; and the Navajos who live in the area today.

Genres: Nonfiction

95 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

David Grant Noble was raised in rural Massachusetts, attended Yale University, and began photographing seriously in 1962 while serving in army counterintelligence in Vietnam. In the 1960s, while living in New York City, he wrote and photographed for the weekly newspaper, Manhattan East, covering anti-Vietnam war rallies in New York and Washington, D.C. among other assignments. He also documented Mohawk iron workers (Mohawk Steelworkers), a project which led to photographing the Ojibwe wild rice harvest. (The Ojibwe and wild rice)

After moving to New Mexico in 1971, he was the photographer on the School for Advanced Research's archaeological excavations at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, a 14th-century site near Santa Fe. He remained on the SAR staff until 1989. He has long studied the Southwest's deep history and archaeology and traveled widely to photograph ruins, rock art (Rock Art), and landscape. His first book was Ancient Ruins of the Southwest: an Archaeological Guide, a fourth edition of which is in process. A selection of his other books can be seen on this web site, as well as selected photographs from In the Places of the Spirits.

David has been represented by photography galleries in New York City, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Dallas, and other cities. His pictures have been widely exhibited, published in magazines and books, and won awards. They can be found in the collections of the Museum of New Mexico, Yale University's Beinecke Library, New York City Public Library, the City of Phoenix, Museum of Art, Dallas, as well as corporate and private collections.

In 2003, David received the Victor Stoner Award from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society for his "outstanding efforts to bring historical and archaeological awareness of the Southwest to the general public." In 2011, he received the Emil Haury Award from the Western National Parks Association's for "outstanding contributions in scientific research or other activities that advance the understanding and interpretation of the natural and cultural resources of western national parks

Reviews

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays – some interesting and others not so – alas not written by David Grant Noble (who is most eloquent when writing of the southwest). The most interesting to me were the essays on art and architecture—mainly because when you visit Chaco you see very little art and massive amounts of masonry in spectacular piles. Another essay on the road system is very interesting. Chaco is the one place in the southwest where information and theories are changing weekly. It is a dead city alive with conjecture. If you have never climbed the mesa to walk the great north road—you must. It’s wonderful and amazing. You might want to pass this book over—there are better.

[Will Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine study of Chaco Canyon and its culture. Split into chapters that detail different aspects of the geology, history, sociology, agriculture, and architecture of the canyon, you get an understanding of the many mysteries surrounding this magnificent place.

Dated, but the pictures are good and the writing sufficient.