After two years Pluckhahn returned to his alma mater in 1996 to become a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.
In the same year he traveled back east to become the field director of the Kolomoki: Learning about a Woodland Ceremonial Center located in Georgia.
During this time he helped excavate the famed mound site of Kolomoki in the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of southwest Georgia.
After extensive studies on the evidence uncovered during the excavation, an important discovery was made involving the dating that had previously been applied.
The analysis in the book supports the evidence of Kolomki's actual occupation, while also answering questions about middle-range societies, their use of ceremony and its effect on status.
This linkage has provided a crucial new way to view the ancestry of the southeastern United States that is invaluable to not only archaeologist and anthropologist, but historians as well.