Secrets of ancient southwest Texas art targeted by donors' gifts

December 10, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Four-thousand-year-old paintings, emblazoned on rock walls across much of southwest Texas and northern Mexico, are better understood because of the analytical and artistic efforts of Dr. Carolyn Boyd, founder and director of Shumla, an International Center for Archeological Research and Education, formerly Shumla School.

That’s the belief of another veteran researcher and anthropologist, Elton Prewitt, and his wife, Kerza, who have committed their talents, passion and personal wealth to getting Boyd back on the area’s rough, caliche tracks. The Prewitts are so convinced that Boyd, her co-workers and colleagues are on the threshold of major discoveries that the Austin couple have pledged a quarter of a million dollars to Shumla’s research thrust unfolding now.

Boyd has been too long separated, say the Prewitts, from the roads leading to answers about the region’s profusion of rock art. Her duties, orchestrating the growth of Shumla and fund raising across the nation to get music from the orchestra, have been all-consuming. Prewitt told LIVE! Wednesday (Dec. 5) that the colorful panels of mystical, spiritual figures, partially protected by limestone caves and cliffside overhangs, hold answers that he believes must underpin the now-robust educational arm of Shumla. But not inexpensively.

“Now it’s important for Kerza and me to ask Carolyn to re-focus her talents on other things that she does best. We want to see Shumla bring up a research division,” said Prewitt. Kerza Prewitt manages the extensive Shumla Web site, www.shumla.org, and Elton presides over the organization’s board of directors, serving in that capacity since 2004. The Prewitts’ gift is a five-year commitment of $50,000 each January to create an investment fund they wish to see managed and leveraged – by the end of 2008 – into a $1 million endowment for rock art research, named in honor of famed Texas archeologist, Dr. David S. Dibble (1928-1993).

“This $250,000 endowment is two-fold,” said Prewitt. “First, it’s to encourage and aid in getting original prehistoric research done in the Lower Pecos, and the primary thrust of that will be rock art studies. And second, down the road, we want to expand the scope to more holistic, general archeological research of the entire Lower Pecos region.”

Prewitt admitted that his motivation – five years ago – to become a Shumla board member was the research potential the non-profit organization offers, solidifying the educational focus that was necessarily at the tip of the spear when Shumla was founded in 1998. “Kerza and I are spending part of our retirement money to get this going, because we want to do what we can to promote original research, and we want to do it here at Shumla,” Prewitt explained. “That was a large reason for our endowment, to let people know we are serious about starting this research program,” said Kerza Prewitt.

Boyd reiterated the important link between the twin goals of Shumla: Scientific research and education. “Without immediate, cutting-edge research, the education function is going to suffer. It’s all part of tearing down the walls between academia and the general public,” Boyd said, adding, “But, I’ll always be an educator because of my passion for it and the research that supports it.”

The Prewitt gift is expected to show the seriousness of both the givers and the Shumla staff, hopefully provoking additional interest in pushing Shumla rock art research efforts into higher gears. “It’s seed money, and it’s already working for us,” said Boyd. The David S. Dibble Research Endowment has already helped leverage a $50,000 donation from the New York-based Ammon Foundation, an “unrestricted gift” that will nonetheless be earmarked for research into its own account.

Shumla and Boyd have received another significant gift with a direct connection to the Prewitt pledge. Boyd will soon take delivery on a new Toyota Tacoma four-wheel-drive, dual cab pickup, announced to her privately by a donor insisting on anonymity. “This gift is indescribably important to us, because without it I was going to keep running without ‘legs’ to take me where I’ll need to go,” Boyd quipped.

Boyd has a daunting list of research topics she hopes to attack, both personally and as mentor and counselor to others interested in participating in the Shumla efforts. But Boyd believes the big picture is painted with a broad brush. “Patterns of ritual and myth in this rock art are recognized as sacred narratives in the Pecos-style sites, as much as 4,000 years old. We’d like to try to break the code, to begin to explain and read these panels more fully, better understanding all the lifeways of people of the Lower Pecos,” Boyd said.

Her growing “wish list” of support items to get started with basic research projects is already the topic of conversations, planning and vendor orders, for – among other things – analytical computer software, databases, maps, GPS equipment, compasses, high-resolution digital cameras, office furniture and bookshelves for a research building being remodeled now in Comstock.

Strengthening the foundation beneath the Shumla research program are three graduate students, all full-time members of the staff now headquartered in Comstock. Jack Johnson is the newest member, while also working on a Master of Science in anthropology and archeology at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. Johnson is an instructor and coordinator of cultural and prehistory youth and adult programs, and will be executing small-scale research projects in support of curriculum development.

Jennifer Ramage, also fresh on the Shumla staff and former administrator of the Del Rio Council for the Arts, handles Shumla operations such as publicity, grant-writing, adult programming, and serving as liaison between the school and visiting scholars and guest speakers. Ramage’s Bachelor of Science is in physical anthropology, and she now hopes to resume Master of Science graduate studies at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kan., with a planned thesis focus on Lower Pecos skeletal remains.

Angel Johnson, Shumla’s executive assistant, soon-to-be research assistant, holds a Bachelor of Science in anthropology, with a minor in art history, and is putting the final touches on a Master of Science in museum science at Texas Tech. Johnson will manage the research program database, cataloguing, manipulation and digital enhancement of photographs, and a research library of several thousand volumes.

The brightening future of Shumla funding and staffing is reflected as a sense of optimism – tinged with occasional euphoria – among the board members, staff, administrators and donors. Ramage commented, “There’s a momentum coming in right now that is just fantastic, really hard to describe.”

And, with characteristic enthusiasm, Boyd returned to the gift of Elton and Kerza Prewitt: “The gift that these guys have made has given me more joy and excitement than I can ever express.”

The Prewitts are clearly determined to invigorate and burnish their investment with their direct assistance to Shumla and by nurturing Boyd. “We have arranged for Carolyn to join us for a two-week tour to Bangkok and prehistoric rock art sites in Thailand that are about the same age as the rock art here in the Lower Pecos,” Elton Prewitt said.

Boyd and the Prewitts will be joined by several preeminent archeologists and anthropologists on the Thai tour, including Dr. Jean Clottes, former scientific advisor to the French Ministry of Culture, and international expert serving the United Nations’ International Committee for Rock Art and the International Committee on Monuments and Sites. The group of scholars and researchers will travel in February 2008, and Boyd has pledged to deliver programs on findings and activities upon her return to Del Rio and the region.