UT’s Jan Simek will appear in the National Geographic series The Story of God with Morgan Freeman on Monday, January 23.
The segment will air at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.
In the episode, Simek—president emeritus of the UT System and a Distinguished Professor of Science in the Department of Anthropology—and Beau Carroll, a UT anthropology graduate student and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, talk to Morgan Freeman about ancient religion. They take him into Dunbar Cave in Clarksville, Tennessee, where they examine prehistoric cave art. They also go to the Mound Bottom Site in Cheatham County to visit prehistoric temple mounds.
Learn more about the series on the National Geographic website.
Simek is an expert in prehistoric cave and rock art. He has spent almost two decades documenting ancient rock art of the Cumberland Plateau, which slices across Tennessee between Chattanooga and Nashville. The ancient cave art provides clues to what life was like for Native American societies more than 6,000 years ago.