Moundville

4 “This Great Group of Mounds”

4 “This Great Group of Mounds” So wrote Clarence B. Moore when he first encountered Moundville. Even the matter-offact Moore could not maintain his usual understatement when describing the site. There are other large Mississippian archaeological sites, but few are so well preserved or beautifully composed. With fire, stone axes, and shell hoes, the people of Moundville transformed the forest into a community. Without benefit of wheeled vehicles or draft animals, human muscle power felled thousands of trees and moved countless basket loads of soil. While the massive earthen mounds dominate the landscape, other structures provided shelter and security. This chapter describes mounds and structures, how this built environment met individual needs, and how the site design illustrates the organization and values of the community. The Environment and Its Bounty As in other Mississippian towns, the inhabitants of Moundville drew most of their resources from the local environment. The preeminent feature of the environment is the Black Warrior River. Arising in the hilly uplands of the Cumberland Plateau, the river once crossed a series of shallow falls and shoals 46 chapter four (now inundated by locks and dams) at the fall line where Tuscaloosa is today, fifteen miles north of Moundville. From there the river flows south onto the Gulf Coastal Plain, a physiographic region of broad swampy floodplains and low hills. A subdivision of the coastal plain, known as the “Black Belt,” is a zone of prairies, canebrakes, cedar groves, and rich soils that begins a few miles south of Moundville . The waterway connected Moundville and its support population of dispersed small settlements to the diverse plant, animal, and mineral resources of uplands, floodplain, and prairie. The river was life to Moundville’s people. Fertile soil renewed by floods and prepared by burning Map of Moundville. this great group of mounds 47 away the vegetation nourished corn, the staple crop. Soil worked by hand with stone or shell hoes produced beans, squash, sunflowers, and gourds. From the water came fish and turtles, an important part of the diet. Hardwood trees produced acorns and nuts that supported people and the deer, turkey, and other animals important to the food economy. Without domesticated animals other than the dog, the Moundville Mississippians relied on wild sources of meat. Regional map. 48 chapter four The regional and local environment satisfied all basic requirements of the Mississippian way of life. Studies of human skeletons from Moundville reveal that people were relatively healthy, although few lived past fifty.1 Poor sanitation fostered infections, which resulted in high infant mortality. Both arthritis and tuberculosis were present. Tooth decay plagued many as a result of the high carbohydrate content of the corn diet. The environment’s bounty and a technology of stone, pottery, wood, shell, cane, and other mineral, plant, and animal products ensured a growing population at the time of Moundville’s founding. The site of Moundville was especially favored as a settlement location because it rests on a natural terrace above the highest floods. Just prior to Moundville’s growth into a major town, this locale was already heavily settled.2 A Tour of Moundville Gazing out over Moundville’s green spaces today, imagine how it looked crowded with people and houses in the year 1250. Standing at the center of the great town, all of Moundville’s architectural features would spread out before you: the central plaza, the majestic mounds, the small wood-and-thatch buildings arranged in clusters behind the mounds, the encircling fortifications, and, beyond, fields of corn. Trees would be cleared away. The mounds and plaza would not be green and grass covered but sheathed in the earth tones of smooth, hard clay. Let’s take a tour of Moundville. this great group of mounds 49 The Central Plaza At Mississippian sites plazas are common public spaces. Moundville’s central plaza is not a natural level plain but a prehistoric construction project. Limited probes reveal fill dirt deposited three feet deep in some places. The full extent of leveling and filling to create the plaza is unknown, but impressive amounts of labor went into the effort. Artifacts found beneath the fill indicate that plaza and mound construction began around a.d. 1200. We know that people did not live in the central portion of the plaza because the fill deposit and plaza surface are mostly devoid...