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To put it simply, archaeoastronomy is the study of past cultures' views and understandings of astronomy through artifacts, ruins and whatever else the cultures may have left on the Earth.

Along with archaeoastronomy comes ethnoastronomy. It's pretty much the ethnography that's related to astronomy. (Wow, well I'll be an uncle's monkey!)

Fajada Butte is the isolated uprising at the southern opening of Chaco Canyon pictured above. Several petroglyphs are located on its rock faces.

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The Anasazi flourished in Chaco Canyon as we all learned in that movie we watched in class. Note the distance of Fajada Butte from Pueblo Bonito and the other dwellings.

So labled by Anna Sofaer, the sun dagger is a petroglyph of a spiral that she "rediscovered." What makes it so spiffy though, is that when she came upon it in late June, 1977, it looked something like this:

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Hmmm..... Archaeoastronomy... Late June....

Can we say "Summer Solstice Marker"? Probably so, and we'll see that it might be a bit more.