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and archaeology culminated in his 1873 book, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly
of the Georgia Tribes. This collection became a seminal work in the field of Southeastern Native
archaeology and influenced scholars for generations.9 In Antiquities of the Southern Indians,
Jones clearly identifies prehistoric populations as culturally separate from any living Indigenous
peoples. When describing the mounds on the Macon plateau Jones cautions his readers to
remember that Native Americans often lie about or avoid discussing their history with outsiders.
He concludes that these tendencies arise from a lack of information and envy of a fallen,
obviously superior civilization.10 Jones further goes on to assure scholars that whoever erected
these mounds were now “wholly extinct within her (Georgia's) borders.”11 Antiquities of the
Southern Indians established a firm separation between descendant populations of American
Indians and their prehistoric ancestors that some scholars still abide by to this day. Though it is
easy to condemn the work of Jones when revisiting it with a modern perspective, his records
have helped in establishing burial patterns and practices found during 19th century excavations.12

Building on the precedents of 19th century anthropologists like Jones, archaeologists in
the early 20th century continued to view Ocmulgee through a Eurocentric lens. In the 1930s the
Smithsonian Institute unwittingly began the largest archaeological dig in Georgia's history.
Anthropologist Arthur Kelly traveled to Macon, Georgia in 1933 to conduct a brief two-month
survey. The abundance of artifacts and features present at Ocmulgee quickly turned this small-
scale assay into a huge archaeological excavation, which at its height employed nearly 1000
workers. Like Jones, Kelly gave no consideration to the potential impacts to, or concerns of,
descendant American Indian populations. He employed extremely invasive excavation methods,

9 Frank Schnell ed, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, viii.
10 Ibid. 125-127.
11 Ibid. 126.
12 Schnell, ed, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, 159-162

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