The present-day visitor to Mound State Monument may see, on the 300-acre Monument tract, 40 mounds which are the remnants of the Moundville Indians’ great city.
The visitor will be interested in identifying these mounds as domiciliary (as distinguished from burial mounds and effigy mounds found at other Indian sites). These domiciliary mounds, which were erected as substructures for temples and other important buildings, are rectangular truncated-pyramids. Their sizes vary. The largest, called Mound “B” (see [map]), is 58½ feet high and covers almost two acres.
Prehistoric Lakes
The several lakes within the Monument area are restorations, made after considerable research, of prehistoric reservoirs. The forty- to sixty-foot bluff at the ancient city’s river front made the Warrior River an impractical source of water supply. These lakes, therefore, may have been used to catch and hold water for daily use and for fishing.
ERSKINE RAMSAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER
Already constructed through the generosity of Dr. Erskine Ramsay, Birmingham, Alabama, Honorary Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Museum, is a large and spacious laboratory building, in which all archaeological material comprising the Museum’s vast collection is suitably and adequately housed. Space is available for students to study any phase of the subject in which they may be interested. (See photograph on [page 20].)
Also completed in the Research Center is one cottage in which a married student might be housed during the period of his studies.
Yet to be constructed are two cottages, a dormitory for unmarried students, and a house for the resident archaeologist.
MOUND “B” AND VISITORS.