Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom: Chronology, Content, Contest

1. A New History of Moundville

1. A New History ofMoundville VERNON JAMES KNIGHT JR. AND VINCAS P. STEPONAITIS WITHIN THE LAST DECADE there have been several advances in our understanding of the specifics of Moundville's developmental history. For example, critical segments of the regional chronology have been refined. Differences between early and late Moundville I phase communities have come into sharper focus. We have incipient chronologies of mounds and sheet midden deposits based on diagnostic sherds. The palisade has been firmly dated. We synthesize these and other refinements according to the following scheme: intensification of local production (AD 900-1050); initial centralization (AD 1050-1200); regional consolidation (AD 1200-1300); the paramountcy entrenched (AD 1300-1450); and collapse and reorganization (AD 1450-165°). Moundville, located on the Black Warrior River in west-central Alabama , is not only one of the largest Mississippian centers in the Southeast but also one of the most intensively studied (Peebles 1981). During the late nineteenth century, the site was mapped by agents ofthe Smithsonian Institution (Steponaitis 1983b). In the first decade of the twentieth century, it was dug by Clarence B. Moore (19°5, 1907). Between 1930 and 1941, excavations were continued on a grand scale by the Alabama Museum of Natural History using Civilian Conservation Corps federal relieflabor (Peebles 1979). And since the 1950S, a number 1 2 KNIGHT AND STEPONAITIS ofsmaller excavations have been undertaken, some ofwhich continue to this day (Scarry 1986; Knight 1992). Only a fraction of the collections generated by this fieldwork have ever been thoroughly analyzed; even so, scholars using these materials have produced an impressive array of studies of social organization (Peebles 1974; Peebles and Kus 1977), political economy (Steponaitis 1978; Welch 1991; Welch and Scarry 1995), subsistence (Scarry 1986;Michals 1981; Peebles and Schoeninger 1981), health (Powell 1988), settlement patterns (Peebles 1978; Bozeman 1981, 1982), and chronology (Steponaitis 1983a). Over the past ten years, new data and new insights coupled with refinements in chronology have led to substantial revisions in our understanding of Moundville's history. Our purpose here is to collate these recent advances into a new synthesis that draws heavily on, and provides a context for, the remaining chapters in this volume. First we describe Moundville and its setting, then we discuss the ceramic chronology, and finally we present our new interpretations of late prehistoric developments in the Black Warrior Valley. THE MOUNDVILLE SITE Moundville occupies a high, flat terrace of Pleistocene age on the eastern side ofthe Black Warrior River at Hemphill Bend, 24 kilometers (15 miles) south of the fall line, in an area where the alluvial valley of the Black Warrior cuts through the Fall Line Hills of Alabama. The terrace on which Moundville lies forms an abrupt bluffrising 17 meters (55 feet) above the river, well above the loa-year flood level. There are only a few such places in the alluvial valley of the Black Warrior where a high terrace directly abuts the river. A schematic map ofMoundville is shown in figure I. I. Most previously published maps include only the prominent truncated mounds, some 20 in number, originally identified in the publications of C. B. Moore (1905,1907). There are, however, additional low mounds, and we include those that have been confinned. Also on this map ~e show the location of the Oliver Rhodes site, an area excavated during the Depression years that should be considered a part of the Moundville settlement, although it is on the opposite side ofa small, unnamed stream. Our map offers whatwe believe to be a reasonable projection of the palisade line that effectively delimits the occupied area on the west, south, and east sides, where, as the map depicts, it perhaps terminates at Carthage Branch. N t o M A New History ofMoundville 3 0T OH o 0 0 i!I'l1!~~K J 1 o 150 , m Fig. 1. 1. Schematic map ofthe Moundville site, The contiguous occupied area is approximately 75 hectares (185 acres) in extent. Within this zone we show the locations of 29 earthen mounds. The initial 22 letter designations were inherited from the work of Moore, and the lettering has been continued as additional mounds were recognized. Our figure for the number of mounds is perhaps conservative ; a sketch map prepared by Nathaniel T. Lupton in 1869 shows peripheral mounds not presently accounted for (Steponaitis 1983a:144). Also, a topographic survey made by an engineering firm in April 1930 interprets...