Moundville consists of a strikingly orderly arrangement of mounds, with the largest mounds located on the northern edge of the plaza and decreasingly smaller mounds ranging away. Over 200 structures arranged in small residential groups have been mapped and excavated. Domestic groups include residential single room open houses, shared work areas, cemeteries and special purpose buildings, connected by pathways to ceremonial structures.
Early excavations at Moundville led scholars to identify multiple purposes for the largest mounds: early interpretations labeled some mounds as "temples", and others as "elite residences", in part based on their size and their artifact content. More recent re-examinations of artifact assemblages (supplemented by modern archaeological techniques) suggests that the mounds had multiple roles.
Knight (2004) compared the assemblages from two mounds (Q and G) earlier assigned to different categories; and found more similarities than differences. Mound Q is a relatively small mound, located on the edge of the plaza, and about 3.8 m (12.5 ft) in height. It was built about AD 1260 and used through AD 1450. Within the mound were found a handful of human burials. On the top of Mound Q were the remains of small, permanent structures, consisting of conjoined spaces with shared walls.
One of the rooms in Mound Q included two large cylindrical storage pits. Food consumed on the summit was deposited in middens placed along the northern flank of mound. Mound Q middens held an abundance of maize, deer, turkey and passenger pigeon; smaller amounts of squash, chenopodium, knotweed, and maygrass; and cougar, bobcat and bear. The middens also include yaupon and tobacco, both known to be of ceremonial importance to Mississippian people. These elements may represent feasting activities.
