Carolyn Boyd

Shumla Endowed Research Professor   
Research Associate Professor   
Email: cb55@txstate.edu 
Phone: 512.408.0545 
Office: ELA 255

Education   
Ph.D. – Texas A&M University, 1998   
B.A. – Texas A&M University, 1994

Research Interests:   
Ideational cognitive archaeology, ancient art and iconographic systems, Native American myth, ritual, and cosmovision, applied anthropology. 

I am a cognitive archaeologist and artist and have spent more than 35 years studying one of the most significant bodies of hunter-gatherer mural art in the world – the Pecos River style (PRS) murals of southwest Texas and northern Mexico. These polychrome paintings were created nearly 6,000 years ago and remained in production for over 4,000 years. Using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates archaeological science, technical art history, materials analysis, and Indigenous knowledge systems, I have demonstrated that these murals are highly structured visual narratives rooted in enduring cosmological traditions. My work contributes to broader questions concerning hunter-gatherer complexity, the origins and persistence of myth, and the transmission of knowledge across generations as encoded in rock art iconographic systems.

I am currently focused on ongoing research and major writing projects, which necessitates a pause on new speaking engagements. I do not plan to accept new graduate students for Fall 2028.

Ongoing Research:
My ongoing research program includes Origins and Tenacity of Myth in Archaic Period Rock Art of Southwest Texas and Northern Mexico, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Layers of Meaning: Chronological Modeling & Pictograph Stratigraphy, funded in part by the National Science Foundation. These interrelated initiatives are subsumed under The Hearthstone Project, a collaborative effort between Texas State University and the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center. This long-term research program synthesizes expertise from archaeological science, formal art analysis, and Indigenous consultants to: (1) unravel the technical history of PRS murals and decode the symbols contained therein; and (2) build a chronological model of PRS pictographs. Results from this ongoing work are informing studies of myth, forager social organization, art history, and the origins of Mesoamerican myth and art, as well as research into possible drivers for the emergence and decline of PRS, including environmental, social, and extra-regional cultural influences. See the Blog Posts below for more information about the project. 

I am also engaged in a collaborative exchange bringing Indigenous knowledge-keepers and scholars into direct engagement with the region’s rock art—creating space to experience, interpret, and share living understandings of this sacred tradition. Across my work, I am committed to integrating rigorous scientific research with respectful partnership to advance both scholarship and heritage preservation.

Steelman, Karen L., Carolyn E. Boyd, and J. Phil Dering
2025, Mapping an Ancient Cosmovision: 4000 years of Continuity in Pecos River Style Mural Painting and Symbolism. Science Advances

Castaneda, Amanda M., Carolyn E. Boyd, and Mark D. Willis
2024, Recording the Visual Record: Current Best Practices and Methods for Rock Art Documentation. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, 95, 127–147.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2024, Color Engenders Life: Pigment and Process in Prehistoric Rock Art. In B. Berrie, C. Fowler, K. Leonhard, & I. Weinryb (Eds.), Pigments Vol. 1. (pp. 93–108). Princeton University Press.

Boyd, Carolyn E., J. Phil Dering, and Karen L. Steelman
2023, The Hearthstone Project: Applying Archaeological Science, Formal Art Analysis, and Indigenous Knowledge to Rock Art Research. American Indian Rock Art, Volume 49, edited by A Gilreath, K Hedges, and A McConnell, pp. 135-150. 

Boyd, Carolyn E., and Ashley Busby
2021, Speech-Breath: Mapping the Multisensory Experience in Pecos River Style Pictography. Latin American Antiquity.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2021, Images in the Making: Process and Vivification in Pecos River Style Rock Art. In Ontologies of Rock Art: Images, Relational Approaches and Indigenous Knowledge, edited by Oscar Moro Abadía and Martin Porr, pp. 245–263. Routledge, New York.

Steelman, Karen L., Carolyn E. Boyd, and Trinidy Allen
2021, Two Independent Methods for Dating Rock Art: Age Determination of Paint and Oxalate Layers at Eagle Cave, TX. Journal of Archaeological Science 126:1–12. DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105315, accessed February 1, 2021.

Steelman, Karen L., Carolyn E. Boyd, and Lennon N. Bates
2021, Implications for Rock Art Dating: A Review of Results from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Quaternary Geochronology 63:1–17. DOI:10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101167, accessed March 1, 2021.

Conkey, Meg and Carolyn E. Boyd
2017, Amérique de Nord. In L’art de la Préhistoire, edited by Carole Fritz, Michel Barbaza, Genevieve Pincon, and Gilles Tosello, pp. 239-273. Citadelles & Mazenod, Paris.

Boyd, Carolyn E. and Kim Cox
2016, The White Shaman Mural: An Enduring Creation Narrative in the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos.  University of Texas Press, Austin.
- Recipient of the 2017 Society for American Archaeology Scholarly Book Award

Bates, Lennon, Amanda M. Castañeda, Carolyn E. Boyd, and Karen Steelman
2015, A Black Deer at Black Cave: New Pictograph Radiocarbon Date for the Lower Pecos, Texas. Journal of Texas Archeology and History. Online only journal, Volume 2, Article 3.

Boyd, Carolyn, Marvin Rowe, and Karen Steelman
2014, Revisiting the Stylistic Classification of a Charcoal Pictograph in the Lower Pecos. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 85:235-241.

Koenig, Charles W., Amanda Castañeda, Carolyn E. Boyd and Karen Steelman
2014, Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Pictographs: A Case Study from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, Texas. Archaeometry 56(1):168-186.

Boyd, Carolyn E., Amanda Castañeda, and Charles W. Koenig
2013, A Reassessment of Red Linear Style Pictographs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. American Antiquity 78(3):456-482.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2013, Drawing from the Past: Rock Art of the Lower Pecos. In Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry Shafer, pp. 171-221. Trinity University Press, San Antonio, TX.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2012, Pictographs, Peyote, and Patterns in the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas.  In Companion to Rock Art, edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth, pp. 34-50. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2010, El Arte Rupestre de Tejas: Análisis Contextual de Motivos Recurrentes en el Área de la Desembocadura del Río Pecos. Revista Iberoamericana de Lingüística 5:5-42.

Boyd, Carolyn E.
2003, Rock Art of the Lower Pecos.  Texas A&M University Press, College Station.