Features such as temples and other ceremonial sites were seen as architectural objects, triggering peoples' curiosity. In the Americas the earthworks and mounds were seen as sources of grave goods, but people speculated wildly about the makers. Little recongition that context of the objects is crucial to their understanding. Context might be defined as an artifact and all its associational information. The associational information is all kinds of information about an object's position in space, both vertically and horizontally, in relation to all other objects within the site.
Archaeologists like to deal with artifacts in situ , that is, in place.
The hardest thing to teach new excavators is not to just pull an object out of the ground when they find it. But if the artifact is left in place as long as possible, the relationship between that object and others may make interpretation very clear. He found tablets with strange scenes and markings which he believed to indicate the mounds were made by Lybians, Greeks, others. He also found carved stone pipes with elephants and other creatures not native to the Americas. Even the Smithsonian became involved in debunking his claims.