UNC Asheville will host a talk by George Stuart, noted Mayan archaeologist and former National Geographic vice president for research and exploration, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, at UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library, Whitman Room. In his talk, Stuart will discuss his most recent work at the late classic Mayan city of Palenque. The event is free and open to the public.

Stuart is the president of the Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, a not-for- profit organization that promotes and directs research related to archaeology, art and culture of Mayan civilizations and Western North Carolina. Prior to the research center’s founding in 1984, Stuart worked at various Mayan ruins in Yucatan and Quitina Roo, Mexico, where he helped supervise the mapping of the excavation. He has also taught at George Washington University, Catholic University and Duke University and has written numerous National Geographic books, magazine articles and scholarly journal papers. Stuart holds a doctorate degree in anthropology from UNC Chapel Hill.

The talk is co-sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Classics Department and the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). For more information call Laurel Taylor, president of the Western North Carolina AIA Society, at 828/251-6290 or ltaylor@unca.edu.