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In 2010, Elders from Mapoon watched "Time Team" and saw ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and other non‐invasive scientific methods being used to identify cultural features on archaeological sites. This led Elders to express their desire for such techniques, particularly GPR, to be brought on country to assist with documenting and protecting cultural heritage sites. This paper explores how Mapoon families have employed these techniques in archaeological settings to reconnect and reimagine specific features in their cultural landscape, as well as to explore, create and renew narratives from their interpretations of the results from the project. We also investigate the nature of Traditional Owner interactions with these technologies in archaeological settings to understand their impact on how cultural identity and value are recreated and renewed, on "caring for country" programmes, and on modernising culturally appropriate forms of engagement with ancestors' remains. We apply these findings to a discussion of how Mapoon people think about their cultural history, identity and connections to country, particularly in relation to mortuary practices and settlement patterns from pre‐contact to the "mission time". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic surveys were conducted on 13 earth mounds within Mapoon Aboriginal Lands, western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Detailed analysis of GPR profiles and amplitude maps of the mounds were compared to those from previously recorded, known burials at the Mapoon Mission Cemetery. Based on these models, burials were identified in ten of the 13 mounds. Both European‐style (coffin) and traditional burials were identified, suggesting that they were used for human interment for some time and that there may have been continuity of burial practice in these features after European contact. GPR and magnetics also indicate that a number of mounds had constructed floors or platforms at the base of the mounds, and evidence for burning. Stratigraphic layers identified with GPR show that many of these mounds have complex internal layering, suggesting multiple building episodes. Based on the GPR and magnetics results, in conjunction with ethnohistorical and oral history research, we conclude that the mounds are constructed features that appear to have had a long history of use for multiple purposes, including mortuary. These results demonstrate the cultural continuity of mortuary practices within Mapoon from pre‐contact times to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of earth mounds and their function over time in northern Australia is of ongoing academic debate. Here we present how the integration of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic data, after being adjusted for surface elevation changes, was used to analyse the interior features and objects within six earth mounds in Mapoon, western Cape York, Australia. These geophysical techniques were merged and interpreted jointly to produce images of the stratigraphic units and objects within the mounds to determine their extent and composition. It was found that some mounds were built over burned areas that contain large objects on the original ground surface. Those modified areas were then converted into substantial earth mounds, which reach a maximum height of about 4 m. Other mounds nearby show no evidence of pre‐construction burning. In one mound cluster the western three mounds contain human burials that were visualized using GPR profile interpretation. The nearby eastern three mounds were devoid of human burials, but contained many of the pre‐mound burned features seen in those just a few hundred metres to the west. The close proximity of these six mounds, with very different associated features and internal objects suggests that they are related in some way, but differed in their function. It is also possible that they were constructed at different times by different people. The data analysis techniques presented in this article assists with further opportunities to undertake non‐destructive investigations of these earth mounds that are culturally appropriate to living Aboriginal people. They will also help to resolve the function and possible importance of these constructed features over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicine Creek: Seventy Years of Archaeological Investigations. DONNA C. ROPER, editor. 2002. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. xix + 248 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 0-8173-1147-5. There are few areas on [...]

The archaeological site of Petra is noted for its impressive monumental architecture and rock-cut facades. An open portion of the site (termed the `Lower Market'), located at the heart of [...]