Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes

Charles C. Jones, Jr.

Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes

Year: 1873

Summary

Charles C. Jones' classic work of Southeastern archaeology and ethnohistory was the result of observations on his extensive collection (nearly 20,000 specimens in the 1890s), his field observations, and his correspondence with other researchers and scholars of the time. In the book, he documents a number of archaeological sites (such as Stallings Island and Etowah) and describes objects in the collection in comparison to similar items found throughout the Southeast and Midwest. Moreover, he endeavors to link the material features and remains to living native populations through a direct historical approach. Thus, Jones' work is a good source for Southeastern ethnohistoric data. As a preface to the book, Jones (1873: xxxvii - xxxix) wrote the following:

"Although the title intimates that our investigations have been directed principally to an examination

of the antiquities of a single State, the present work will be found to embrace within its scope a much more extended field of observation. In prosecuting the proposed inquiries, it appeared both unnecessary and improper narrowly to observe the boundary-lines which separate modern States. It will be remembered, moreover, that the original grant from the British crown conveyed to the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia a territory greater by far than that now embraced within

the geographical limits accorded to her as a State. A striking similarity exists among the customs, utensils, implements, and ornaments of all the Southern Indians : consequently, in elucidating the archaeology of a region often occupied in turn by various tribes, it seemed appropriate to mention and contrast the antiquities of Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Our object has been, from the earliest and most authentic sources of information at command, to convey a correct impression of the location, characteristics, form of government, social relations, manufactures, domestic economy, diversions, and customs of the Southern Indians, at the time of primal contact between them and the Europeans. This introductory part of the work is followed by an examination of tumuli, earthworks, and various relics obtained from burial-mounds, gathered amid refuse-piles, found in ancient graves, and picked up in cultivated fields and on the sites of old villages and fishing-resorts. Whenever these could be interpreted in the light of early

recorded observations, or were capable of explanation by customs not obsolete at the dawn of the historic period, the authorities relied upon have been carefully noted. The accompanying plans of mounds were prepared from personal surveys, and nearly every typical object

used in illustration may be seen in the author's collection. Most of these relics were obtained by me in

situ. They are now figured for the first time. To the friends who have kindly aided me in gathering

together a cabinet which so fully and beautifully

represents the arts and the manufactures of these primitive peoples, I here renew my cordial and grateful acknowledgments. Prepared at irregular intervals and in odd moments as they could be borrowed from the exacting and ever-recurring engagements of an active professional life, these pages, with their manifest shortcomings, are offered in the hope that they will, at least in some degree, minister to the information and pleasure of those who are not incurious with regard

to the subject of American archaeology."

Cite this Record

Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes. Charles C. Jones, Jr.. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1873 ( tDAR id: 376846) ; doi:10.6067/XCV80001C1