Moundville was a regional capital of the Mississippian civilization, located on the Black Warrior River in the southeastern part of the American state of Alabama; today the complex is within a public park open to visitors. It is one of the largest Mississippian complexes known, with a total of ~30 earthen mounds, a central plaza, residential areas, thick middens, and cemeteries. The largest earthwork at Moundville is 56 feet high; and during its occupation, a stockade protected an area of over 200 acres.
Chronology at Moundville
Moundville was first occupied about AD 1120, when a handful of farmsteads were established, as well as at least one pyramidal mound. By 1150, the site had become a civic and religious center, with a 20-hectare plaza and a population of around 1000. The height of Moundville's Mississippian influence came between about AD 1200-AD 1450. By 1300, most of the residents had left Moundville, although elites were still in residence until about 1500.
Diet and Subsistence at Moundville
Based on data from the midden deposits, the dominant food at Moundville was maize, grown locally and supplemented by squash, chenopodium, hickory nuts, knotweed, and may grass. Meat for the residents came from deer which were clearly butchered elsewhere and brought back to the site, based on the schlep effect analysis. Passenger pigeon, turkeys, cougar, bobcat, bear, and bison bones were also found.
A large number of subterranean storage pits dated to the late Mississippian period have been identified at Moundville, which several scholars have argued is evidence for public feasting.
Living at Moundville
Rituals: A few tobacco seeds, known to have been used for ritual purposes among Native American groups, have been found at Moundville. Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria, an American holly) leaves were found pressed into the clay body of a figurine.
Craft specialization in the form of lapidary arts, copper working, leather working, pigment production and the making of greenstone celts was identified by tool kits including paint palettes, sandstone saws and a range of small-bit tools.
Pigments at Moundville included lumps of worked and raw red and yellow ochres, glauconite (green), graphite and coal (black), and lead galena.
Ornaments: Pottery ear plugs, sheet copper pendants, marine shell and clay beads, polished bone hair pins, turkey-wing fans, smoking pipes of clay and stone, human figurines
Archaeology at Moundville
Excavations at Moundville were first conducted as part of the Depression-era surveys by Clarence B. Moore in the 1930s. Vernon Knight excavated there between 1989 and 1998. Today, Moundville is a public park owned by the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
Sources
The University of Alabama's webpage on Moundville is well worth visiting, particularly if you plan to visit in person.
This article is a part of the About.com Guide to Mississippian, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
A bibliography of Moundville has been assembled for this project.
Barrier CR. 2011. Storage and relative surplus at the Mississippian site of Moundville. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(2):206-219.
Beck, Robin A.Jr. 2003 Consolidation and Hierarchy: Chiefdom Variability in the Mississippian Southeast. American Antiquity 68(4)
Knight, Vernon J. Jr. 2004 Characterizing Elite Midden Deposits at Moundville. American Antiquity 69(2):304-321.
Maxham, Mintcy 2000 Rural communities in the Black Warrior valley, Alabama: The role of commoners in the creation of the Moundville I landscape. American Antiquity 65(2):337-354.
Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1983 Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns: An archaeological study at Moundville. Academic Press, New York.
