Aerial view of Moundville Archaeological Park.

Moundville Elementary students take part in the Moundville Native American Festival.

MOUNDVILLE, Ala. -- Moundville Archaeological Park, a National Landmark site and a division of The University of Alabama Museums, has been awarded a highly competitive $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a one-year collaboration of park staff and an advisory group to plan new permanent, interpretive exhibits that will enhance the park as an education center.

The University of Alabama operates the 326-acre Moundville site, which attracts approximately 45,000 visitors annually, more than one third of them during the four-day Moundville Native American Festival each October. Park facilities include an orientation center with a theater, the Jones Archaeological Museum, and an Indian village life exhibit of four reconstructed huts with dioramas. Like most of the park facilities, the museum has not been refurbished since the early 1970s.

“The proposed exhibits will tell the Moundville story in a dramatic, themed setting while displaying the unique Moundville artifacts in ways that reflect the sensibilities and sophistication of the people who created them," said Bill Bomar, director of Moundville Archaeological Park. “Now, according to exit interviews, many visitors tend to think of Moundville as simply a burial ground for Native Americans," said Bomar. "They don't comprehend that the mounds are the ruins of what was once North America's largest and most powerful community."

Although a broad concept has been developed for the new museum exhibits, the NEH grant will allow staff from Moundville Archaeological Park to work closely with an advisory group to further develop exhibit themes, select artifacts, and pose key questions that the new displays will seek to answer, or, in many cases, create scenarios for contemplation by visitors.

The advisory group for the project includes the nation's leading Mississippian-period archaeologists specializing in Mississippian art, religion, iconography, and economics; a folklorist specializing in Southeastern ethnography, as well as museum educators, an exhibits designer, a multimedia specialist, and Southeastern Native Americans. These experts will propose exhibits to address themes that interpret to visitors such complex issues as Mississippian politics, religion, art, warfare, and diplomacy.

"These exciting, cutting-edge museum exhibits will highlight the world of Moundville's powerful elite. Then the nearby Indian village life exhibit will turn the visitor's attention to the daily lives of ordinary Moundville citizens," said Bomar. "Life-size dioramas in reconstructed Mississippian houses will depict pottery firing, food processing, weaving, woodcarving, and agricultural techniques."

Following completion of the exhibits plan, the UA Museums would later hope to renovate or replace facilities and upgrade exhibits for its park and museum at Moundville.

Scholars internationally recognize Moundville as one of North America's most significant archaeological sites. In the 13th century, nearly 3,000 Mississippian people lived in this powerful and carefully planned capital town. An additional 7,000 occupied a 75-mile strip along Alabama's Black Warrior River that formed the core of the Moundville chiefdom. At Moundville, they constructed 28 earthen mounds that served as building platforms for civic and ceremonial structures and the homes of nobles. At its peak, Moundville can be considered America's largest city north of Mexico.

UA's Moundville Archaeological Park is located 14 miles south of Tuscaloosa along the Black Warrior River. The park is open daily from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Both the park and museum are closed for major holidays. For more information, phone 205/371-2234 or visit the web site, http://moundville.ua.edu.