Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

Moundville Reveals Remains of Rare Council House

By Joanna C. Hutt

The University of Alabama Museum of Natural History’s Expedition 23 archaeology team has discovered the remains of a rare, underground Native American council house dating from the 15th century, one of the few such architectural earthlodge structures ever found in the Southeast.

Expedition 23 team unearths rare find at Moundville Archaeological Park.

Members of this year’s Expedition team, working at Moundville Archaeological Park’s Mound V, began uncovering the prehistoric structure early in the four-week archaeological dig. The Museum’s Expedition program is the 23rd annual scientific summer field dig for lay people under the guidance of professional and academic instructors. This year’s team got more than they could have imagined.

Participants, including elementary school age children (accompanied by adults) and others as young as 14 (unaccompanied), live and work from a tent camp to learn field techniques, lab procedures, and artifact identification. This year’s team began work on the surface of a large mound overlooking the Black Warrior River in a remote part of the park. The structure burned and collapsed at the end of the Mississippian Period as the Native American community declined and the people dispersed.

Dr. Vernon James Knight, curator of Southeastern Archaeology for the UA Museum of Natural History and professor of anthropology, believes the structure to be about 550 years old. "This is a unique and special find," he said. "The site was generally abandoned about 1500 when the tribal chiefs split up."

"This earthlodge was certainly a building where the chief or chiefs would have met with the council to make important decisions," said William "Bill" Bomar, director of the Moundville Archaeological Park. From the outside, it would have originally appeared as a low mound with a tunnel entrance, he said.

Ceremonial and spiritual events also may have taken place in the earthlodge, according to Knight. "There are post holes situated around the site to indicate a pavilion surrounded the structure," said Knight. "We don’t know yet if it, along with other Park mounds, indicates some kind of alignment with celestial markers or association with the solstices and equinoxes."

Artifacts recovered at the earthlodge site

Ceramic smoking pipes, decorated pottery fragments and other artifacts have also been recovered from the site.

There are other earthlodge sites in the southern Appalachians and in central Georgia, but until now archaeologists did not believe they existed as far west as Alabama’s prehistoric Moundville. Knight calls the discovery one of the biggest finds with which he has been associated.

About one year ago, Knight began recognizing clues that something exceptional was located at Mound V. "Mound V is huge. It is situated just below the Chieftain’s Mound and was linked by stairs, which gives it more significance," he said. The 60-foot Chieftain’s Mound is the tallest of the park’s 26 mounds and was probably the site for a temple or chief’s house.

After the council house was burned, it was buried and sealed with clay brought up from the river bank. "This ceremonial sealing was a major effort in itself," said Knight.

This year’s Expedition leader, Brian Rushing, a museum staff member and naturalist, said that the Expedition offers an opportunity for participants to be involved with world class research. "This find could change experts’ views of the evolution of the Mississippian culture," he said.

The Expedition team uncovered the tunnel entranceway leading to the center of the lodge, portions of the structure’s floor, and the clay embankment surrounding the outer walls of the structure. In addition to other icons, a large greenstone axe head and engraved sherds were found. After careful documentation, the portions of the structure uncovered were re-filled with sand. In the fall, excavation work will resume.

High school graduate Brian Montabana, of Birmingham, and high school student Whitney Harvey, of Oneonta, who met at last year’s Expedition, sifted through dirt brought to them in wheelbarrows while talking about the discovery. They said they were excited to be a part of an important find. "I will come to the University and become an anthropologist," said Montabana. Harvey plans to become a forensic anthropologist.

For more information about the find, contact Bill Bomar at Moundville Archaeological Park, 205/371-2234. For more information about the Expedition program, call 348-1516.