MOUNDVILLE, ALABAMA

Some people say all these MISSISSIPPIAN MOUNDS in the US region were influenced by travellers and traders that came and went from the Aztec, Mayan and Olmec civilizations. Those civilizations were rising and growing a few hundred years ahead of the Mississippian cultures. About the only ones still thriving by the time the Europeans arrived near 1500 .. were the Aztecs in Mexico. The Mississippians were gone or fragmented by then as well as the others. The INCA in South America were still thriving.




Presented by Vic Campbell - 12ponder.com AUG 2018

MOUNDVILLE, ALABAMA - a mystery

I’ve wanted to go see these mysterious mounds in MOUNDVILLE, AL for a long time. I’ve seen the mounds at ETOWAH in Georgia and some other mounds in the South, including the one at Fort Walton Beach, FL. I’ve read up on them and wondered how these people came to be. How they decided on the “mound culture” and the civilizations they founded …. And LOST.
Over thousands of years, the native peoples of America adapted and transformed their societies from archaic era hunters to woodland farmers and hunters to urban chiefdoms that controlled vast areas of land and people. But for whatever reason, by about 1450 the strong central mound cities were disbanding and breaking up. Warfare? Loss of a belief system? Drought? Disease? Who knows? Nobody has anything written down to describe the history at the time. 

When the Europeans arrived about 1500 there were remnants of these great cities but a wider and multifaceted set of tribal allegiances had taken their place. The “modern” tribes had begun to coalesce and perhaps from a small population base of survivors, gained a great deal in population by 1800. And then a whole new set of issues were set before them. The European and African infusion. No longer would tribes have to ally with other native tribes to fight their NATIVE enemies. They would now also ally themselves with the Europeans for power and territory. But that did not turn out so well either,




What is with the EYE In the HAND? This is a mystery to the archaeologists. It must have been something special to just this culture on the Black Warrior River. Other places don’t have this. There are zero hints of what it means. I can make up a great story and so could you. But … what?



AND a very special it seems - Stone shield carving with the mysterious HAND and entwined rattlesnakes It has become an official seal for the Park here at Moundville.

We made a short two night trip into Alabama to take all this in. After Moundville, we visited OLD Cahawba the first Capital of Alabama (not counting the pre historical capital centers for the Indians)

ENJOY THE ALBUM HERE


There is a wonderful museum there. It is near Tuscaloosa, the home of The University of Alabama. There are many studies on these mounds and this era of civilization in North America.


A PRINTABLE VERSION