Holley Moyes has been fascinated by caves since childhood when family vacations included stops at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
Moyes transformed her youthful interest in touring the natural wonders hidden underground into a career studying the archaeology of religion, a relatively new subdiscipline in the field.
Moyes, an archaeology professor, is researching how caves were used in Mesoamerica as sacred or religious spaces. The notion of early humans living in caves is a myth, Moyes said. Their homes were usually rock shelters. Dark zones of caves were almost always used as religious or sacred spaces, and sometimes as burial grounds.
Moyes joined the UC Merced faculty in January because she was drawn to its focus on interdisciplinary research.
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