Mound State Monument, Moundville, Alabama

Museum Paper 20 ( Revised )
• OPEN ALL YEAR •
A blisful lyf, a paisible and a swete, Ledden the peples in the former age — Chaucer, Former Age, line 2
The Black Warrior River winds slowly among the rolling southern foothills. On the banks of this river many centuries ago there flourished a great Indian metropolis. Here dwelt a pleasant and contented people whose story is not of warring braves but of peaceful artisans. Theirs were days not of strife and treachery, but of quiet toil and worship. These people, given to pottery-making and the building of fine temples, have vanished long ago. The eloquence of their handiwork endures. Their pottery, lodged in the muddy earth, emerges as fresh proof that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”. Their temples, decayed these many years, are yet in evidence, for the pyramidal substructures of these temples—earth mounds of imposing size and number—remain.
The mounds and the story of the people who built them, a story recorded in clay and stone and native metal, are preserved today at Mound State Monument.
The Indians dwelling in the ancient city, though of medium stature, were well built and muscular. Their faces were finely molded and handsome.
Considered stylish were “flattened heads”. Head-flattening was caused by strapping the young Indian to a wooden cradle board. The pressure of the leather thongs on the soft bones of the baby’s head caused a flattening which remained throughout life. Such a head seems to have become a mark of good rearing, and greatly to be desired, for many mothers went so far as to strap sand bags on their children’s heads to induce this flattening.
A Moundville Indian skull that was not flattened.
This Moundville Indian skull shows the result of artificial head-flattening.
Leather and fabrics woven of vegetable fibres were fashioned into garments. In extremely cold weather robes made of feathers may have been worn over the rest of their clothing.
The Moundville Indians, both men and women, were fond of personal adornment. They wore ear plugs, bracelets and arm bands of copper, and beads and pendants of bone, stone, shell and copper. Many of their pendants, carved with intricate and delicate designs, would invoke the envy of women of today. Long hairpins were made of bone, and considerable time was devoted to hairdressing.