Niède Guidon

Niède Guidon (Portuguese pronunciation: [niˈɛdʒi ɡiˈdõ]) (12 March 1933 – 4 June 2025) was a Brazilian archaeologist known for her work in pre-historic archeology of South American civilizations and her efforts to secure the conservation of the World Heritage Site Serra da Capivara National Park.

Educated in Brazil and France, she worked in Paris for most of her career. From the early 1970s, Guidon conducted archeological research in Southeast Piauí, where thousands of archeological sites have been discovered. Her dates from those sites indicate that human settlement preceded North America's Clovis people by tens of thousands of years. In the late 1980s, these findings challenged the mainstream theory of Clovis First and have generated debate in the academic archeology community.

She was the founding president of the Fundação Museu do Homem Americano (American Man Museum Foundation), a non-profit organization created to support the Serra da Capivara National Park, a World Heritage Site. Guidon won several national and international awards, including the Prince Claus Award, and the Ford conservation and Environment award.

Early life and education

Guidon was born in 1933 in Jaú, in São Paulo (state), Brazil. She moved to São Paulo, where she studied Natural History at the University of São Paulo and subsequently worked for the Ipiranga Museum.

In 1963, Guidon organized an exhibition of prehistoric paintings at the Ipiranga Museum. A visitor approached her 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.