Peñasco Blanco ("White Bluff" in Spanish) is a Chacoan

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southe ...

great house A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

and notable archaeological site located in

Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a large concentration of pre-Columbian indigenous ruins of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, betwee ...

, a canyon in

San Juan County, New Mexico San Juan County () is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 121,661 making it the fifth-most populous county in New Mexico. Its county ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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. 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 A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

on July 5, 1054 AD.. Penasco Blanco Pueblo

Notes

α. The

Crab Nebula The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus (constellation), Taurus. The common name comes from a drawing that somewhat resembled a crab with arm ...

, now a

supernova remnant A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar mat ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

of Taurus, was the result of the event in question; it attained peak brilliance on the date that the Chacoans presumably sighted it.

Citations

References

External links

Peñasco Blanco
a Photo Gallery * https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/69/pueblo-blanco * Colorado Plateau Chaco Canyon Buildings and structures in San Juan County, New Mexico Former populated places in New Mexico Chaco Culture National Historical Park Ancestral Puebloans {{NewMexico-geo-stub