Email: jtm@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Florida, 1971
Concurrent Appointments:
- Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Adjunct Professor, Center for Latin American Studies
Research Interests
Eastern United States archaeology; pre-Columbian Southeastern U.S. native peoples; Colonial period native American-European/Anglo relations in the Americas; Florida in the nineteenth century
Books
2020 Illuminating Edison: The Genie of Menlo Park and the New York Sun, 1878-1880. Sarasota: Peppertree Press.
2020 Tales from the Catskill Tribune–The Mountain’s Premier Source for Fake News. Sarasota: Peppertree Press.
2017 Handfuls of History–Stories about Florida’s Past. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Press.
2016 The Florida Adventures of Amos Jay Cummings, 1873-1893. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Press.
2013 Enchantments: Julian Dimock’s Photographs of Southwest Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (With Nina J. Root.)
2011 Hidden Seminoles: Julian Dimock’s Historic Florida Photographs. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (With Nina J. Root.)
2008 A Remarkable Curiosity: Dispatches from a New York City Journalist’s 1873 Railroad Trip across the American West. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
2006 Laboring in the Fields of the Lord, Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians. Gainesville: University Press of Florida
2005 Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, And Other Oddities: A New York City Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
2004 Florida’s Lost Tribes: Through the Eyes of an Artist. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (With artist Theodore Morris.)
2002 Archaeology of the Everglades, by John W. Griffin, edited by Jerald T. Milanich and James J. Miller. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
1999 Famous Florida Sites: Mt. Royal and Crystal River. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (Edited, with an introduction.)
1999 Laboring in the Fields of the Lord, Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
1998 Florida’s Indians from Ancient Times to the Present. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (Paperback edition 1999.)
1997 Archaeology of Northern Florida, A.D. 200-900: The McKeithen Weeden Island Culture. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (With A.S. Cordell, B.J. Sigler-Lavelle, T.A. Kohler, and V.J. Knight, Jr.; reprint of 1984 Academic Press edition with new title.)
1996 The Timucua. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. (Paperback edition 1999.)
1995 Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (Paperback edition 1998.)
1994 Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (Paperback edition 1994.)
1993 Hernando de Soto and the Florida Indians. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. (Co-authored with Charles Hudson.)
1991 The Hernando de Soto Expedition. New York and London: Garland Publishing. (Edited, reprinted articles with an introduction, pp. i-xxxiv.)
1991 Earliest Hispanic/Native American Interactions in the Greater American Southeast. New York: Garland Publishing. (Edited, reprinted articles with an introduction, pp. i-xxxvi.)
1989 First Encounters, Spanish Explorations in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. (Edited with Susan Milbrath; paperback edition 1989.)
1985 The Early Prehistoric Southeast: A Sourcebook. New York, Garland Publishing, Corp. (Edited, reprinted articles with an introduction.)
1984 McKeithen Weeden Island–The Culture of Northern Florida, A.D. 200-900. New York: Academic Press. (With A.S. Cordell, B.J. Sigler-Lavelle, T.A. Kohler, and V.J. Knight, Jr.)
1980 Florida Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. (With Charles H. Fairbanks; reprinted 1985; paperback edition 1987.)
1978 Tacachale–Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida. (Edited with Samuel Proctor; reprinted 1983, paperback edition 1994.)
1972 Francisco Pareja’s 1613 Confessionario: A Documentary Source for Timucuan Ethnography. Tallahassee:, Florida Department of State. (With William C. Sturtevant.) [Portions reprinted in Reading the American Past, vol. 1, 3rd and 4th editions (2005, 2008), edited by Michael P. Johnson. New York: Bedford/St. Martins.]
1971 The Alachua Tradition of North-Central Florida. Contributions of the Florida State Museum, Anthropology and History 17.
Recent Articles
2023. The First Floridians. In Once Upon a Time in Florida: Stories of Life in the Land of Promises, edited by Jackie Levine, pp. 12-19. St. Petersburg, FL.: Florida Humanities.
2023. Cannibals and Kings: What the Accounts Tell Us About the Indians of the Southeast Atlantic Coast, pp. 179-220. In Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal, or God’s Protecting Providence: An Early American Castaway Narrative, edited by Amy Turner Bushnell and Jason Daniels, pp. 179-220. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Press.
2016. Trails Are Artifacts, Too. In Adventures in Florida Archaeology, pp. 37-42. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Association Archaeological Institute. Also: https://myfloridahistory.org/files/magazines/fhsai_adventures_2016_ref_333.pdf
2016. Fast or Fiction? Theodore De Bry’s 1591 Engravings of Early Florida Indians. In Adventures in Florida Archaeology, pp. 21-28. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Association Archaeological Institute. Also: https://myfloridahistory.org/files/magazines/fhsai_adventures_2016_ref_333.pdf
2014. Charting Juan Ponce de León’s 1513 Voyage to Florida: The Calusa Indians amid Latitudes of Controversy. In La Florida: 500 Years of Hispanic Presence, edited by Viviana Díaz Balsera and Rachel A. May, pp. 49-68. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. [Volume awarded the 2014 Gold Medal for non-Fiction, Florida Book Awards.]
2013. Alligators with Ears?Theodore de Bry’s Engravings of Timucua Indians. In ArtCalusa—Reflections on Representation, ed. by Theresa M. Schober, pp. 12-14. Fort Myers: Lee County Trust for Historic Preservation.
2010. The Bartrams, Clarence B. Moore, and Mount Royal—Early Archaeology on the St. Johns River, Florida. In Fields of Vision: Essays on the Travels of William Bartram, 1739-1823, edited by Kathryn Braund and Charlotte Porter, pp. 169-193. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
2009. The Realities of Reburial.Archaeology 62(2):18, 56-61.
2008. Florida’s Native American Heritage. In American Indian Places: A Historical Guidebook, edited by Frances H. Kennedy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
2007. Introduction to Florida and the Circum-Caribbean. In The Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress,edited by Arthur Dunkelman, pp. 173-174. Washington: Library of Congress.
2007. Gordon R. Willey and the Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast. In Gordon R. Willey’s Contributions to American Archaeology: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by William Fash and Jeremy Sabloff, pp. 15-25. Norman: Oklahoma University Press.
2006. A Un Nuevo Mundo: Indios y Europeos en La Florida del Siglo XVI. In Franqueando Fronteras: Garcilaso de la Vega y la Florida del Inca, edited by Raquel Chang-Rodríguez, pp. 55-82. Lima, Peru: Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú.
2006. New World: Indians and Europeans in Sixteenth Century La Florida. In Beyond Books and Borders: Garcilaso de La Vega and La Florida del Inca, edited by Raquel Chang-Rodriguez and John O’Neill, pp. 47-65. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press.
2006. Cultural Indigestion? Florida Frontier Gazette 5(3):6-7.
2006. Evidence for the Early Use of Maize in Peninsular Florida. In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, pp. 249-261. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Academic Press. (third author with Jennifer A. Kelly and Robert H. Tykot.)
2006. Introduction. In Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians, edited by Thomas J. Pluckhahn and Robbie F. Ethridge, pp. 1-25. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. (third author with Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Robbie F. Ethridge, and Marvin T. Smith).
2006. The 1880 Wreck of the Steamship City of Vera Cruz and the Aftermath. Florida Frontier Gazette 5(2):2-4.
2005. Isotopic Evidence of Immigration Linked to Status during the Weeden Island and Suwanee Valley Periods in North Florida. Southeastern Archaeology 24:121-136. (third author with Bethany L. Tuner and John D. Kingston.)
2005. Homeless Collections. What Happens to Artifacts When They Have No Place to Go? Archaeology 58(6):57-60, 62, 64.
2005. The Missions of Spanish Florida. Museum Archaeologists Uncover a Little Known Chapter in Our Country’s History. Natural History 115(8):70-71. [Florida Museum of Natural History edition.]
2005. The Devil in the Details. What Are Brazilian War Clubs and Pacific Seashells Doing in 400 Year-Old Engravings of Florida Indians? Archaeology 58(3):26-31.
2005. Frolicking Bears and Other Oddities: Florida’s Natural History in the Late 19th Century. Natural History 115(5):60-61 [Florida Museum of Natural History edition.]
2005. Spaniards and Native Americans at the Missions of La Florida. In Unlocking the Past: Celebrating Historical Archaeology in North America, edited by Lu Ann De Cunzo and John H. Jameson, Jr., pp.19-24. Gainesville: University Press of Florida and the Society for Historical Archaeology
2004. A Century of Research on the Franciscan Missions of Spanish Florida. Missionalia 32:313-331.
2004. Archaeological Evidence of Colonialism: Franciscan Spanish Missions in La Florida. Missionalia 32:332-356.
2004. Happy Trails on Florida’s Gulf Coast: An Archaeological Odyssey as Antidote to Automobile Anxiety. Florida Monthly Magazine 24(10):44-47.
2004. Water World—Beneath Southwest Florida’s Veneer of Modern Development is an Extraordinary Archaeological Landscape. Archaeology 57(5):46-50.
2004. Timucua. In Southeast. Vol. 14. Handbook of North American Indians, pp. 219-228. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
2004. Prehistory of Florida after 500 BC. In Southeast. Vol. 14. Handbook of North American Indians, pp. 191-203. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
2004. Prehistory of the Lower Atlantic Coast after 500 BC. In Southeast. Vol. 14. Handbook of North American Indians, pp.229-237. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
2004. Early Groups of Central and South Florida. In Southeast. Vol. 14. Handbook of North American Indians, pp. 213-218. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
2004. The City of Veracruz—Wrecked Ship’s Story Recalls Harrowing Odyssey. Daytona News-Journal, August 26 [Neighbors Section; 1335-word newspaper article].
2004. Osceola’s Head. Archaeology 57(1):48-53.
2003. Clarence Bloomfield Moore: A Philadelphia Archaeologist in the Southeastern United States. In Philadelphia and the Development of Americanist Archaeology, edited by Don D. Fowler and David R. Wilcox, pp. 113-133. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. (second author with Lawrence Aten.)
2002. “A Very Great Harvest of Souls”: Timucua Indians and the Impact of European Colonization. In Anthropology, History, and American Indians: Essays in Honor of William Curtis Sturtevant, edited by William L. Merrill and Ives Goddard. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 44:113-120. Washington, D.C.
2002. Gone but Never Forgotten: Mission Santa Catalina on Amelia Island and the 1702 Raid. El Escribano 39:1-15.
2002. Weeden Island Cultures. In The Woodland Southeast, edited by David G. Anderson and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., pp. 352-372. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
2002. Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Mysteries: An 1873 Description of Mounds in East-Central Florida by Amos Jay Cummings. Florida Historical Quarterly 80:360-374.
2002. Florida Archaeology–A Recent History. In Histories of Southeastern Archaeology, edited by Jane Hill, Sharon Tushingham, and Charles H. McNutt, pp. 219-229. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
2002. The Historian’s Craft. Florida Historical Quarterly 80:375-378.
2002. Motel of the Mysteries—Urban Archaeology in the Nation’s Oldest City. Archaeology 55(1):50- 53.
2001. A Case of Cultural Indigestion? Anthropology News 42(7):60.
2001. A Peek at the Past, the Rise and Demise of Archaeology’s Victorian Predecessor. Archaeology 54(5):38-39.
2001. A Late Nineteenth-Century Description of Shell Mounds and Middens on the North Peninsula Gulf Coast of Florida. Florida Anthropologist 54:75-79.
2001. Closing the Ignorance Gap, Florida’s Once Neglected History and Prehistory Now Get Top Billing in K-12 Textbooks Statewide. Archaeology 54(4):22-23. [Reprinted 2001 in Forum: The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council 24(3):40-41, as “Schools Delve into History.”]
2000. Occupational Hazards. Archaeology 53(6):96.
2000. When Worlds Collided: Native Peoples of the Caribbean and Florida in the Early Colonial Period. In Myths and Dreams: Exploring the Cultural Legacies of Florida and the Caribbean, pp. 11-20. Miami: Jay I. Kislak Foundation.
2000. The Timucua Indians of Northern Florida and Southern Georgia. In Indians of the Greater Southeast, Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Bonnie G. McEwan, pp. 1-25. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
2000. Prolific Pioneer or Mound Mauler? Why Scholars are Ambivalent about Clarence Bloomfield Moore. Archaeology 53(4):56-58.
Honors and Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award, Florida Anthropological Society, 2017.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, 2015.
Gold Medal, Florida Book Awards, 2013 (awarded to Enchantments).
Dorothy Dodd Lifetime Achievement Award, Florida Historical Society, 2013.
Gold Medal, Florida Book Awards, 2011 (awarded to Hidden Seminoles).
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (inducted 2010).
Lifetime Achievement Award, Florida Archaeological Council 2005.
Medalist Award for 2004 (Outstanding Florida Scientist), Florida Academy of Sciences.
Choice Outstanding Academic Book in Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1997 (awarded to The Timucua)
James Mooney Book Award, 1995 (awarded to Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida by the Southern Anthropological Society).
Rembert Patrick Book Prize, 1994 (awarded to Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida by the Florida Historical Society).
Rembert Patrick Book Prize, 1993 (awarded to Hernando de Soto and the Florida Indians by the Florida Historical Society).
American Association for State and Local History Book Award, 1994 (awarded to Hernando de Soto and the Florida Indians).
Presidential Recognition Award, Society for American Archaeology, 1993.
Who’s Who in America, 1993 and subsequent editions.
Named among University of Florida Top Researchers for 1987-88, 1995.
University of Florida Frontiers of Science Lectureship, 1987.
Ripley P. Bullen Memorial Award, 1980 (awarded by the Florida Anthropological Society for work with non-professional archaeologists in Florida).