ABSTRACT
Rock art can be found on six world continents, largely in significant and/or isolated natural environments. In many countries, the natural landscape provides a frame for the religious significance of petroglyphs/pictographs, in addition to the scaffold of the conservation system, which interprets many of the sites as part of large national parks in an effort to regulate tourism and access to the sensitive cultural material. Despite the spiritual context that the landscape provides for understanding this form of cultural heritage, conservation concerns have led to the “caging” of rock art sites, designed to protect sites from human destruction. The practice has become a frequently implemented answer to the cultural iatrogenesis of increased tourism when combined with limited resources in southern Africa. This chapter assesses planning approaches at rock art sites with the intention of both conserving and interpreting the art for public consumption as part of the historic natural landscapes.
