Missions and reserves in Queensland dating from the 1880s to early 1980s have specific spatial and physical characteristics that fit Erving Goffman's structural description of ‘total institutions' (1962:74). These specific characteristics, analysed here, include locks, wire mesh enclosed verandahs, barred windows, barbed wire fences, strictly regimented spaces and segregated built environments. Material culture in the forms of photographic evidence, surveyed maps and plans are employed. This kind of primary evidence is used due to the paucity of survival of other more traditional forms of archaeological evidence to answer questions concerning the original layout and built environment of mission and reserve sites. This paper about Queensland challenges the findings of research by Rowse (1993), Lydon (2000) and Trigger (1992, 1985) concerning the application of ‘total institutions' to missions and reserves in Australia. Many missions and reserves in Queensland were total institutions and the spatial and physical environment of these institutions was an attempt at social control over Aboriginal peoples. The physical and spatial environment of missions and reserves in Queensland can be seen as a reflection of power relations in modern society.

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.

No abstract

No abstract

A robust 3-D GPR dataset provides interpreters with a variety of methods for extracting important information at buried archaeological sites. An iterative approach that uses reflection profile analysis, amplitude slice-mapping, and often both in conjunction is often necessary as neither method by itself is sufficient. In northern Australia, two constructed mounds contain a number of cultural and geological horizons and features, which can be imaged with GPR. The reflection profiles display the modified ground surface prior to mound construction and some initial construction layers. On the pre-mound surface, amplitude maps of reflective layers that were built-up on the ground surface indicate that they were constructed in an intentional manner. Those surfaces were later covered by sand to produce mounds used for human burial. Human internments in the mound can only be seen in reflection profiles, but once discovered, the profiles can be re-sliced to produce high definition amplitude images of these remains. No one method of analysis can provide an overall interpretation of these complex internal mound features. When the methods are varied, depending on the results of one method, a detailed and varied analysis of certain aspects of the mounds’ internal features are visible, leading to the generation of a number of hypotheses about how this area of northern Australia was used in the past. The 3-D data from GPR shows that this area was an important location on the landscape in the past, and was modified by the construction of a monumental mound, which was then used for human burials, and more recently, the construction of what was likely a ritual enclosure.