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ABSTRACT
In this paper, we discuss the management strategies applied to rock art in Western cultural contexts (France and northern Spain). How do the persons responsible for rock art sites manage the tension between their conservation and long-term transmission, and their opening to the public to enable their heritage value to be shared and transmitted in the present? Drawing on a typology of the many possible configurations, we discuss the choices made by the actors in charge of decorated sites. We thus demonstrate that the implementation of quotas depends on the priorities of the decision-makers and their interpretation of the preservation of a decorated site. Finally, our empirical approach leads to a discussion of the accessibility of rock art sites from the angle of heritage access rights and the heritage-making process. What meaning do we ascribe to sites that remain closed and thus cannot be experienced by the public?
Acknowledgements
This article is the result of several field campaigns carried out by the two authors, of master degree research of students of the Department of Geography/University of Savoie Mont Blanc, and of numerous discussions with colleagues and archaeologists. Our thanks go to G. Gotti, F. Ballet and to the members of the Departmental Conservation of the Heritage of Savoie for the fieldwork done in the French Alps; to A. Stummer, J. Altuna and J.-J. Delannoy for the Spanish data; to C. Malgat, F. Prud’homme and L. Mayer for the Ardèche side; to A. Brancelj and X. Meyer for the Italian fieldtrips; to J. Monney and all his team for the work done in the Guadeloupean Island; to N. Ndlovu and to our French and South African colleagues involved in the SORAT project for fruitful exchanges during the field mission in the Vézère Valley. Several types of funding have made it possible to carry out these different missions and this work was supported 1) by the LABEX ITEM (ANR-10-LABX-50-01), within the program “Investissements d’Avenir” operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR); 2) the CDP-Patrimalp IDEX UGA; 3) the IFAS funding through the application’s calls 2019; 4) the French Ministry of Culture for research done in Guadeloupe Island 5) the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NRF through the Protea call 2018 and 6) the support of EDYTEM through the annual allocation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Melanie Duval
Melanie Duval is a senior researcher at the Edytem UMR 5204 CNRS Laboratory (University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France) and an honorary research fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). As a human geographer, her research is concerned with heritage, sustainable tourism and archaeological sites (rock art, lake dwelling remains), particularly in mountain areas (South of France, French Antilles, Alps, South Africa), where she analyses the dynamic balance between heritage processes and tourism development, with a focus on stakeholders’ interplay and the role of local communities
Christophe Gauchon
Christophe Gauchon is a professor of Human and Social Geography at the University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France / Edytem UMR 5204 CNRS Laboratory. He studied cavern use and development in the French mountains and then extended his field of analysis to tourism developments, heritage-making processes and protected areas, with a particular interest of the use of toponyms in heritage logic.