As part of Conway’s 10th ArtsFest celebration, Dr. Reinaldo (Dito) Morales, associate professor of art history at the University of Central Arkansas, will announce his recent discovery of cave art in Yucatán at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27.
The presentation, “Mayan Cave Art Discoveries in Yucatán,” is free and open to the public and sponsored by AHA!, the UCA Art History Association. It will be in McCastlain Hall room 143.
With support from the UCA University Research Council and the UCA Department of Art, Morales studied cave art in Yucatán during the summer, discovering new art in two ancient Mayan caves, including Loltún, the most famous cave in Mesoamerica.
Working under a research permit from the National Institute of Anthropology and History, he was documenting the rock art in Loltún’s “Inscription Chamber” when he discovered the engraving. This motif had gone unnoticed since Edward H. Thompson, U.S. consul to Mérida, first investigated the cave in 1888.
In the decades since, Loltún has been the focus of intense archaeological study, with approximately 200 paintings and engravings previously documented. This cave is a palimpsest of art-making that spans the history of Mayan civilization from its hunter-gatherer origins, through the apex of their political expansion, to the dark years of European conquest and colonization.
For more information, contact the UCA Department of Art at (501) 450-3113 or Madeline Wyly, president of AHA!, at Madeline.wyly@yahoo.com.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Music, and Film, Theatre and Creative Writing, as well as the School of Communication. The college’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit www.uca.edu/cfac or call (501) 450-3293.
