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MOUNDVILLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK, ALABAMA |
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MOUNDVILLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK Welcome to Moundville Archaeological Park, the best preserved site of its kind in North America. At its height, Moundville was the largest and most powerful political and religious center in the Southeast. Nobles at Moundville ruled over thousands of people harnessing their manpower to build these mounds and fostering a thriving economy based on corn agriculture. |
| Native Americans have lived in Alabama
for more than 10,000 years. For most of that time they were skilled nomadic
hunters and gatherers. With the rise of large scale corn agriculture around
AD 800, however, Southeastern Indians began setting in large villages
and a rich and complex culture arose. Archaeologists call these people
Mississippians because their culture originated in the Mississippi River
Valley, spreading outward to sites like Moundville.
Eight hundred years ago, Moundville was an impressive sight. More than 1,000 people lived within a mud-plastered, wooden wall studded with guard towers that surrounded the city on three sides. A high bluff on the Black Warrior River formed the site's northern boundary. Between AD 1200 and 1250, the Moundville people erected at least 29 earthen pyramidal mounds in a roughly rectangular pattern around a large central plaza. Ruling families used the mounds in pairs... a larger mound served as the platform for a noble's residence while a smaller mound beside it was used for religious rituals. Mississippian society was divided into ranked classes. Different levels of distinction probably included nobles, warriors, priests, artisans, commoners and possibly captives. After about AD 1300 only the highest ranking elites lived at Moundville. However, they held political and religious control over a population of about 10,000 people over a 60 mile stretch up and down the Black Warrior River Valley from Tuscaloosa to Demopolis. |
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TASCALUSA AND ALABAMA'S INDIAN
HERITAGE The Indians of the early period of Spanish exploration were members of what is now called the Mississippian Indian culture. The Indians of this culture were dominant throughout the Mississippi Valley and much of the Southeast. The culture of building mounds in their principal towns is perhaps their most distinctive trait. They had complex political and religious organizations which included many villages covering many square miles. |
| These provinces survived primarily on
corn farming (maize). The members of a province had strong allegiance to a
central high chief.
Tascalusa was one of three chieftains. An impressive figure of a man, his name means "black warrior" in the Choctaw language. His name was later used for the city of Tuscaloosa and for the Black Warrior River which flows through it. Mound State Monument at Moundville may have been one of the Indian towns that De Soto's troops visited. At another of his towns, Mobile, Tascalusa fought a great battle with the De Soto expedition on October 18, 1540. Although the Spaniards were victorious, the battle did significant damage to the expedition and contributed to its ultimate retreat to Mexico. The great Mississippian culture, already in decline in Alabama, gradually came to an end after this point in history. Corruption and disease, to which the Indians had no immunity were spread by the Spanish and other European explorers. The result was a decimation of the Indian population. |
| In their place and descended from the remains at the Mississippian culture came the Indians of the more recent historic period in Alabama... the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and later the Cherokees. These modern tribes were fewer in number and had a greatly integrated social and political structure that lacked high chiefs. |
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MOUNDVILLE SITE Has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark. Under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1933, this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States. U S Department of the Interior, National Park Service. |
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THE CCC AND MOUNDVILLE The Civilian Conservation Corps was born during the turmoil of the Great Depression. Hundreds of thousands of young men were out of work, and wasteful exploitation of the environment had devoured millions of acres across America. In 1933, as part of his "New Deal" program, President Franklin D Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps in an effort to save these "two wasted resources, the young men and the land. |
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| The Civilian Conservation Corps contributions to Moundville were immense. They helped archaeologists excavate over 45,000 square feet of the site, unearthing more than 1,000 whole ceramic vessels. They cleaned, cleared and restored the badly deteriorated mounds. The CCC also brought erosion under control at the site, contouring the landscape and building dams to check the runoff of water and soil. |
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| The Civilian Conservation Corps most visible accomplishment at Moundville was the Jones Archaeological Museum. Hand-cast of reinforced concrete, the museum took over 6,000 man days of labor and over two years to complete. Construction began in February of 1937, and the museum was dedicated on May 16, 1939. Regarding the Civilian Conservation Corps, Walter B Jones for whose family the museum is now named, declared, "It is to their everlasting credit that there is no better concrete job anywhere." |
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