Moundville P 19-25
2/15/05
8:56 PM
Page 19
New Revelations at Moundville
Researchers have extracted new information about this community’s elites from Mound Q (shown here), as well as from other mounds.
Recent research at this well-known Mississippian town is providing a picture of its rise and fall and the var ying behavior of its elites.
VERNON JAMES KNIGHT
By Mike Toner
J
ohn Blitz peers intently at the potsherds in his hand. One is an undistinguished piece of reddish clay, the other a fragment of dark gray ceramic. To most people they are merely broken bits of ancient pots. To Blitz, they confirm that, nearly a thousand years ago, two very different cultures met and mingled in eastern Alabama along one of prehistoric America’s most important cultural divides. “These artifacts aren’t particularly fancy, but I like to american archaeology
tell my students it’s not what you find, but what you find out,” Blitz says. “And these two types of pottery are quite informative because they bridge two cultures.” “Look at this,” he says, thrusting the sherds under a magnifying glass. “This one, the one with reddish bits of fired clay, is what the Woodland people used to strengthen their pots for use on open fires. The gray one is tempered with little bits of mussel shell. That’s a later technique, definitely from early Moundville.” 19
