By Loretta Fulton

“Light, Motion, and Spirit in Central Texas Rock Art” will be the topic for the April meeting of the Abilene Interfaith Council.

The public is invited to the free meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, at First Central Presbyterian Church. Dr. Jeremy Elliott, a professor in the Department of Language and Literature at Abilene Christian University, will talk about the cliff art at Paint Rock, 70 miles southwest of Abilene.

Dr. Jeremy Eliott

Elliott, who is also director of the Edwards Plateau Archeological Research Group, takes his students to Paint Rock for lessons that can be learned through interpreting rock art.

“We are trying to understand this site, not like it’s something in a laboratory, but like it’s something that has been alive and developing for thousands of years and still is,” he said. “It’s not an inactive site. People have never quit praying here.”

The following is from Elliott’s bio on the ACU website:

“Elliott and his family live on the Callahan Divide. In addition to teaching at ACU, Elliott is the director of the Edwards Plateau Archeological Research Group. He directs collaborative educational archaeological excavations, working with elders from Coahuilteco, Comanche, and Lipan Apache communities to develop research questions and find ways to work together towards answers. These excavations proceed from the understanding that sites are living, and that human understanding of them is best shaped through reading them as parts of living traditions.”

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene