Archaeological Landscape as Cultural Landscape: Considerations Concerning the Poti Rock Art Complex, Piauí – Brazil

Abstract

The relevance of archaeological heritage and context protection is highlighted in both neo-evolutionist processualist and post-processualist Archaeology. In the first perspective culture is considered to be the result of technology and environmental relations while the second approach holds the view that researchers must examine all cultural aspects in order to understand the meaning of each part of specific archaeological cultures. In this sense, we propose the use of the concept of “archaeological cultural landscape”, which permits broadening our understanding of archaeological heritage from that of isolated units as expressed in current government legislation to that of territories of ancient groups. Cultural landscape therefore should be adopted either as the standard or at least as an important category for preserving and safeguarding archaeological heritage by national and international institutions. We demonstrate the relevance of cultural landscape in the case of one of the most important rock art clusters in Brazil: the Rio Poti Rock Art Complex, located in the state of Piauí.