Moundville Native American Arts and Culture Festival 2009

The Moundville National Park is an archaeological site that was occupied from around 1000 A.D. until 1450 A.D. This was a large settlement of Native Americans on the Black Warrior River in central Alabama. The Native American settlement that once occupied this area was a three hundred acre settlement built on a bluff overlooking the Black Warrior River.

The outlay of the settlement was roughly squared and seemed to be protected on three of its sides by a bastioned wooden palisade. The size and complexity of Moundville is second only to the Cahokia site located in Illinois. Moundville was once a populous town as well as a religious center and a political center.

Within the settlement area the central plaza is surrounding by twenty-six earthen mounds. The larger ones were apparently were the noble's lived alternating with smaller ones that supported buildings other residences. Some of the smaller buildings were also used for mortuary and other purposes. The arrangement of the mounds and central plaza gives the site the impression of planning and symmetry.

Over the years archaeologists have found evidence of borrow pits and small houses constructed of pole and thatch which have yielded burials places beneath the floors. They have also found evidence of some other small public buildings. There have been striking differences found between the nobles and the commoners revealing a highly stratified society which has been found among the excavated burials and their grave goods.

Some include rare artifacts that could be associated with certain religious or political offices. There is evidence that shows that Moundville was sustained by tribute of food and labor which was provided by the people who lived in the nearby Black Warrior Valley floodplain farmsteads also by other smaller mound centers. The Moundville community at its height contained a population of about one thousand with around ten thousand in the entire valley.

The Moundville's community growth and prosperity was made possible with the intensive cultivation of maze. The nobles dominated the traffic of imported goods such as copper, mica, galena and marine shell. The inhabitants of Moundville were renowned for their artistic excellence in pottery, stonework and embossed copper. The Moundville settlement site took a decline around 1350 A.D. and by the 1500's it was mostly abandoned.

Every year there is a Native American Arts Festival held at the Moundville State Park to celebrate the arts, culture and way of life of Southeastern Indians of the past and present. Some twenty-six earthen pyramidal mounds set the backdrop for the festival which includes a living history encampment, demonstration arbors, and art's market and there is also a children's hand-on area. There are performances by award winning Native American dancers, musicians and storytellers that run throughout the event.

The Moundville Native American Arts Festival offers a wide range of fine arts, crafts and souvenirs for sale as well as authentic Native American foods and regular concessions throughout the event. The event this year will be held during October 7th -10th 2009. There is also the Jones archaeological Museum on the site to visit which houses many different types of artifacts excavated from over 60 years of archaeological excavations from the Moundville site. Group rates are available for more information call 205-371-2234 or visit their website at www.moundville.ua.edu.

Admissions Charge:

Adults 17 and over $9.00 each
Children 6 - 16 $7.00 each
Children 5 and under free
Registered groups of 10 or more $7.00 each