Moundville Archaeological Park is located in Moundville, Alabama. Moundville was the largest city in North American over eight hundred years ago with a large settlement of Mississippian culture and creating a community of a three hundred acre village on the bluff. Today the park is administered by the University of Alabama and includes museums and a rectangular plaza. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
The Jones Archaeological Museum was opened in 1939 and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and consisted of two wings with a burial and central exhibition area. The burial wings were closed in 1989 and replaced with the artifacts and interpretive exhibits that on show in the museum today. The artifacts provide more then 60 years of information from archaeological excavations and investigations. A theater shows films on the history of Moundville and Southeastern Indians. A stores is located in the museum selling reproduced pottery, Native American crafts and artwork.
The Edward T. Douglass Nature Trail is a one-half mile trail, which winds through the Alabama woodlands. Along the trail are traces of human activity in Moundville from as far back as A.D. 1000 when the site was cleared by Mississippian Indians to start building the mounds. A level boardwalk has been constructed to allow all visitors to enjoy the area from ground level to treetop height.
The Indian Village and John & Delia Roberts Craft Pavilions showcase how prehistoric Mississippian people lived. There are different houses in this area, which has a separate theme depicting the life of the people who lived in this area of Alabama before European settlers arrived. The Pavilions are used to demonstrate Native American ways of life, are used for demonstrations areas for the Native American artists and as outdoor classrooms.
Self guided tours are available and will take approximately 2-3 hours to complete. The park also offered in-house programs and outreach programs for schools and youth groups. During the summer Indian Summer Day Camp is offered for students, all visitors are invited to celebrate the Moundville Native American Festival or meet and watch Native American artists at work.
The largest mounds are located on the northern edge of the plaza and decrease in size going south, in either direction, of the plaza. It has been theorized that the higher ranked clans occupied the larger mounds and the smaller mounds supported the buildings and were used for residences and other purposes. Mound A is located in the center of the plaza, Mound B is just north of the central axis of the site, is a steep 58 feet high, pyramidal mound with two access ramps.
Archaeologists have discovered public buildings, small houses that were constructed of pole and thatch that have yielded burials beneath the floors. Among the excavated burial sites, visitors will be able to see the differences between the nobles and commoners due to the rare artifacts found in the sites
The majority of an Independent Film, A Genesis Found was filmed at the site, which dramatized the digs that were carried out by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
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