James A. Ford
James Alfred Ford (February 12, 1911 – February 25, 1968) was an American archaeologist who studied Native American cultures in the Mississippi River region and beyond.
He was born in Water Valley, Mississippi, and grew up near ancient earthwork mounds that sparked his interest in past cultures. In 1933 he proposed a timeline for Native American cultures along the lower Mississippi River.
From 1933 to 1934 he worked at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia, under Arthur R. Kelly. In 1934 he studied the Tabby Ruins at Elizafield Plantation near Brunswick, Georgia. He also worked for the Georgia State Parks Service and for the Southeast Fair Association to help create an American Indian Exhibition in Atlanta.
In 1937 he helped restore an earthen lodge at Ocmulgee NM for the National Park Service. During the winter of 1939–40, he excavated the Medora site for the Louisiana State Archaeological Survey, a joint project of LSU and the WPA. These digs helped define the Plaquemine culture.
In the early 1950s Ford led the first large excavations at Poverty Point, Louisiana, and continued the work with breaks for many years. He identified the ridge-like earthworks as a key feature of Poverty Point and ran early experiments with loess soil to understand the site’s many objects, starting the field of experimental archaeology in North America. Later evidence showed some of his Poverty Point theories were incorrect, and his radiocarbon dating methods were limited by the technology of the time.
In 1958 he excavated the Menard–Hodges site in southeastern Arkansas. Ford died of cancer on February 25, 1968, in Gainesville, Florida.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 02:49 (CET).