Niède Guidon

In 1963, Guidon organized an exhibition of prehistoric paintings at the Ipiranga Museum. She was approached by a visitor from Serra da Capivara, who showed her photographs of rock art from rock shelters in the area. Guidon recognized that the paintings were significantly different from any known at that time, and was struck by their diversity and abundance. A few years later, Guidon visited the rock shelters at Piauí herself, and began research in the area in 1973. In 1978, she convinced the French government to establish an archeological mission to study prehistory in Piauí. Guidon led a mission composed of national and international researchers and local field assistants until her retirement, at which point Eric Boëda, a researcher at the CNRS and professor at the Université Paris, took over at her invitation.

In 1978, Guidon and other researchers petitioned the Brazilian government to create a protected area in the Serra da Capivara region. The Serra da Capivara National Park was created in 1979, encompassing an area protected by UNESCO,[4] but the legislation has received little investment for its implementation.

As the head archaeologist at the park, Guidon was responsible for the preservation, development and management of archaeological projects in the park. She and her colleagues have discovered more than 800 pre-historic sites revealing occupation of the Americas by human beings, of which more than 600 are accompanied by paintings. In Pedra Furada, Guidon and her colleagues excavated an archaeological rock art site to uncover evidence of a Paleoindian culture they believe to be as old as c. 30,000 years B.P.,[5] significantly predating previous theories of the first habitation of the area by early Americans.[6] She has recorded over 35,000 archaeological images and published multiple papers and books.

Her findings were first brought into the spotlight in 1986 with a publication in the British magazine Nature, in which she claimed to have discovered 32,000-year-old hearths and human artifacts. Although such early dates have not been generally accepted, Guidon and her colleagues have shown that the area was occupied by Paleoindian and Archaic rock art cultures subsisting on broad-spectrum hunting and gathering. In 1988 she began a partnership with the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), to facilitate the continuation of her excavations.

Guidon's most famous prehistoric site is the Toca do Boqueira de Pedra Furada, located near São Raimundo Nonato in the Serra de Capivara park. Pedra Furada is a rock shelter 55 feet (17 m) deep; its walls are painted with more than 1,150 pre-historic images. Guidon has found thousands of artifacts here that could suggest human handiwork, and discovered a structure resembling a bonfire equipped with arranged logs and stones that she believes date back 48,700 years. She has suggested that humans reached Brazil about 100,000 years ago, probably by boat from Africa. The plant and animal remains recovered from the c. 10,000-year-old levels of this site and from comparable levels of another rock shelter in the Serra, the Perna site, show that the area was more humid and more forested than today. Michael R. Waters, a geoarchaeologist at Texas A&M University, noted the absence of genetic evidence in modern populations to support Guidon's claim.[7]

In response to the growing threat to the integrity of local ecosystems and rock art,[8] the same group of researchers founded the non-profit organization Fundação Museo do Homem Americano (FUMDHAM) (American Man Museum Foundation) to manage and protect the National Park and develop its surrounding rural communities. Guidon was the president of FUMDHAM from its creation in 1986 until 2020.

In 1990, Guidon moved from Paris to São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, the gateway community of the Serra da Capivara National Park, where she has lived since. As president of FUMDHAM, she was involved in creating two museums, the Museum of the American Man and Nature's museum, a research center, and several social projects in education, health care, and sustainable economic activities in rural communities, offering training in ecology, prehistory, and the restoration of archaeological artifacts.[9][10] Guidon has also led petitions to build schools, successfully establishing five new schools in local communities with a teaching faculty from the University of São Paulo, which have since declined in activity due to the lack of governmental structure. She also started a ceramics business, Cerâmica de Capivara, which she turned over to local entrepreneurs when it began making a profit.