Mapping an archaeology of the present: Counter-mapping at the Gummingurru stone arrangement site, southeast Queensland, Australia

Abstract

In 2010 a large project to map the 5ha Gummingurru stone arrangement site on the Darling Downs, southeast Queensland, Australia, was completed; 9368 rocks were plotted and recorded and many of these rocks make up the over 20 motifs on the site. But Gummingurru is a site that is more than rocks. It is part of a large cultural landscape which includes neighboring sites, resource tree plantings, scarred trees, story places and memoryscapes (Lavers, 2010). Current mapping of the site and the associated landscape features has been inhibited by the constraints of two-dimensional mapping. In this article we outline an alternative map for the site and its cultural landscape – the Prezi web-based tool. The Prezi ‘map’ allows the documentation of a fluid and contextual approach to place and is easily updated or modified as data or attachment to place change.