Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1985 - 63

The defense system
Since 1978, the University of Alabama's Department of Anthropology
has conducted fieldwork at Mound State
Monument with the intention of uncovering remains of these prehistoric fortifications. The Summer Field School in
Archaeology, intended to teach students
the techniques of excavating and recording in archaeological investigations, permits us a rare opportunity to carefully
explore a large structure of this kind.
The first season uncovered evidence
that the Indians had built at different
times three separate systems of walls,
and that one of these was itself rebuilt
three or four times. The evidence for
this exists as scars left in the ground by
the trenches dug to receive the upright
posts. Using stone, shell, and wooden
hoes, the Indians excavated long narrow trenches as much as two meters into
the ground. Pine logs about 20 centimeters in diameter were used. They were
placed quite close together and the earth
returned to chock them in place. They
probably extended three meters or more
above the surface. No evidence of a mud
daub covering for the walls has been
found. Few artifacts are found in the
trenches, which suggests that they were
open for only a short time and that
people did not live in close proximity
to walls.

Intersecting colored strips indicate
palisade walls rebuilt and relocated at
various periods during Mississippian
occupancy of the Moundville site.

During excavation, we first remove the
thin disturbed upper zone, then all horizontal surfaces are carefully troweled.
The troweling is designed to discern differences in soil color, density and
texture indicative of the various soil features. The ground is then moistened and
the various trenches and post molds,
the residue of posts left in place, reveal
themselves as contrasts to their surroundings. In this way investigators are
easily able to detect rebuilt trenches
passing through earlier disused ones.
Vertical sections are excavated to determine the depth of the construction
and the sequence of building. The plan
of the latest system clearly indicates two
trenches, both of which crossed earlier
systems, and the vertical sections suggest an even earlier trench line. A still
earlier construction of this system appears only ephemerally from place to
place, so disturbed has this trench been
by subsequent rebuilding.
The sheer size of these fortifications
frequently thwarts efforts at traditional
archaeological investigation, and excavation by heavy machinery is therefore
often employed. But careful excavation
by hand, although time-consuming,
turns up considerable fine detail. Even
though we have only a short section of
palisade represented we can briefly describe a portion of the works at Moundville.
Each of the palisades used a similar
system of rectangular bastions connected by sections of curtain wall. Four
meters wide, the bastions project seven
meters from the wall. Large posts in the
bastions and occasionally along the curtain's interior suggest an elevated covered way along which archers could have
stood. The distance between bastions is
from 35 to 40 meters. Here and there
breaks in the wall trenches suggest narrow openings or gates.
Later trenches become progressively
more shallow and earlier ones reveal no
post molds. Both conditions indicate
that posts were drawn from the ground
and reused elsewhere. This clearly suggests that through time it became ever
more difficult for the Indians to obtain
building supplies. The combined needs
for residential building materials and
other domestic uses of wood throughout the chiefdom, as well as supplies to
maintain an extensive palisade, must

have heavily stressed the local forests.
It may be suggested that escalating
costs, as parties went farther and farther afield to find suitable logs, were
a contributing factor in the eventual
breakdown of the Mississippian socioeconomic system.
It is hoped that tracing the walls of
Moundville will give investigators a clue
to the growth of the town. Few artifacts
have been located in association with
wall trenches, and many of them are
from the early period of the Mississippian lifeway. This evidence, although
limited to 130 meters of palisade, suggests that the walls enclosed the full
townsite from early in the occupation.
The only evidence of structures near the
walls is an extensively modified area
intersected by portions of palisade
trenches, indicating that it predated the
construction of the walls.
The 1984 field session limited itself
to a series of problems in the area of
this construction. As a consequence we
were able to extend the line of the palisade, as well as begin excavation of a
pre-fortification structure. This appears
to be a roughly rectangular, prepared
surface with very clearly defined edges,
the final stage of a mound which was
rebuilt several times. Associated with
the rebuilding stages are episodes of
burning as well as hearths integrated
into the matrix. Each of the rebuilding
stages should be associated with renewal
ceremonies,which occur as part of Mississippian religious practice or at the
death of an important family member.
It was interesting here to discover an
earthen structure with a long history of
renewal which was nevertheless abandoned sometime prior to the construction of the main fortification.
Archaeology, which should begin with
a question, sometimes unearths enigmas. Our excavation is no exception,
but a careful selection of field problems
has kept diversions to the minimum. We
did not find evidence of siege and warfare by way of arrowpoints and warclubs, but much to indicate that these
massive defense works needed to be
constantly maintained. In the humid
southeastern environment, alive with
termites and wood rot, the great walls
at Moundville were rebuilt at least five
times in the few centuries of the town's
existence. All questions about the end
of the Mississippian lifeway need to
reckon with the long-term costs of maintaining an elaborate society capable of
generating monumental public works
upon the fragile bases of a kin-based
chiefdom and subsistence agriculture.
In time, intensive exploitation of the
environment and stresses within the fabric of Mississippian society caused the
towns, like Moundville, to diminish in
size and power. By the 1500s the walled
town of Moundville had been abandoned.
1985
September/October

Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1985

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1985