Ocmulgee Archaeology, 1936-1986

Book excerpt: In Ocmulgee Archaeology, 1936-1986 more than twenty archaeologists reexamine the findings of the largest archaeological excavation ever undertaken in Georgia. The sixteen essays in this volume were originally presented at a symposium commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Ocmulgee National Monument. The symposium provided archaeologists with an opportunity to update some of the work begun a half-century before and to bring it into the larger context of southeastern history and culture and general advances in archaeological research and methodology. Among the topics discussed are platform mounds, settlement patterns, agronomic practices, earth lodges, human skeletal remains, Macon Plateau culture origins, relations of site inhabitants with other aboriginal societies and Europeans, and the challenges of administering excavations and park development. Some of the contributors participated in the Ocmulgee project and thus are able to offer personal perspectives on the value of the work that was accomplished and the potential of the work that still remains to be done.