The ceremonial Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee Old Fields, an extraordinary piece of Mississippian architecture, remained buried for 800 years until Dr. A.R. Kelly discovered it during major excavations in 1934. Workers of the Civil Works and Work Projects Administration under the direction of James A. Ford exposed the intact original clay floor, which featured a bird of prey platform with three seats, a depressed fire pit, and forty-seven raised bench seats extending around the circular wall and dropping in elevation near the entrance, suggesting that those seated closer to the platform held higher status in the society. The Mississippians had burned the building, possibly as a cleansing ritual or for other reasons, and fragments of clay, charred timber, and cane from the ceiling or roof lay in a spoked wheel pattern on top of the floor and were carbon dated to 1015. A large pottery vessel was the only artifact found in the lodge. The Earth Lodge was reconstructed within a concrete shell to preserve and protect the clay floor, using the same species of trees and cane as in the original lodge. The entrance passage was rebuilt higher than necessary for easier visitor access, though the original entrance height is unknown, and although the original roof was not sodded, the reconstructed roof was sodded for preservation purposes. Opened to the public in November, 1937, the Earth Lodge was a Mississippian Council House, a public building much like Senate chambers, where the fifty seats suggest men gathered for political and ceremonial religious meetings, and the clay pot found there suggests participants drank black tea made from the highly caffeinated leaves of the Yaupon Holly bush.