| Abstrakt: |
This thesis aims to study rock-art manifestations-paintings and engravings-in the Lajeado Complex, area delimited for this research. This area encompasses in geographic terms the municipalities of Palmas and Lajeado, in the State of Tocantins, Brazil and geomorphological terms two units: the Tocantins Depression and the Residual Plateau of Tocantins. The Lajeado Complex 30 rock-art sites are currently known, five of them unpublished. All of these sites are here presented and described, among these two were selected as case studies, one site in each of the geomorphological units mentioned above: the Foz do Lajeado site with 16 unpublished engraved rocks, confluence of the Lajeado and Tocantins Rive in the Tocantins Depression and the already known Vão Grande site, in the Serra do Lajeado in the Residual Plateau of Tocantins. The analysis of both sites includes comparisons with the remaining known sites in the Lajeado Complex. The application of concepts from Rupestrian Archaeology and Landscape Archaeology took in account the relationship between rock art, archaeological context and its place in the landscape. In terms of Rupestrian Archaeology we analysed the relationship of the rock-art with the other archaeological remains, lithics and ceramics, with the aim of contextualizing it in space and time. Based on fifteen datings associated with rock-art sites in the area, we can infer that the technique to do engravings already exists in the region at least since 8000 years before present. When some of the motifs are compared to ethnographic and archaeological data, these are similar to those found in the ceramic tradition context, spanning from 2000 to 300 years before present. Still within the Rupestrian Archaeology approach we elaborated full recordings of the sites, without selecting elements for analysis and therefore these sites are fully described and understood. Within the Landscape Archaeology approach we identified were each site is placed in the landscape by analysing at the microscale the spatial arrangement within sites, at mesoscale the geomorphological characterization of sites and at macroscale the relationships established between sites in the different landscapes. Fieldwork based on this approach was limited by the fact that the area has were engraved rocks exist has been partly flooded by a large hydroelectric dam, UHE-Lajeado, which could have contributed to a better understanding of the subjects dealt with. Rupestrian and landscape analysis provided insights, never before noticed. Because of this, a series of petrographic and chemical analysis were made with the aim of better understanding the relationship between the sites and their geological and geomorphological characteristics and additionally this allowed to understand the conservation issues of rock-art engravings and painting The petrographic analysis resulted in better understanding of the correlation between the use of the rock surface and conservation of engravings and paintings which supports the idea that these have affinities. This analysis resulted in more information about engraving which allowed us to identify important aspects about the act of engraving. The resistance of the rock to pecking and the texture, allowed us to identify that the same technique results in two distinct styles due to the differences in the rock surface. The internal colour of the rock is different from the patina of the surface and that of the engravings, therefore these engravings were much more noticeable when they were made since they would have had the same colour as the rock interior. This widened the distance at which these could be seen and therefore widened the scale of interaction with landscape and amongst the rocks. The chemical analysis of pigment identified the main components and opens a very important window in the stylistic debate of rock-art paintings, since we observed that some of physical-chemical changes in the pigments are due to the exposure to natural agents through time and not only due to technical and stylistic choices of the painters. In the end, the wide range of hypothesises and results of this initial study provides the basis for future rock-art research in the Lajeado Complex and Tocantins in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
