UA’s Moundville Park to Host Lecture Series

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s Moundville Archaeological Park will host a series of scholarly lectures this fall.

As part of the 75^th anniversary celebrations of the Jones Archaeological Museum opening in 1939, the park, in conjunction with an Alabama Humanities Foundation grant, will host three lectures that will present the Moundville site from several different scholarly viewpoints and will allow visitors to come away with a deeper understanding of Moundville culture and its significance to people today.

Dr. Vincas Steponaitis, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Dr. Kent Reilly, of Texas State University, San Marcos, are nationally recognized as Moundville experts. They are the featured presenters for the first speaking engagement, “Archaeology and Art: Understanding Moundville through Different Disciplines,” slated for 11 a.m. Sept. 20 at the park’s riverside conference center.

Steponaitis will deliver the first 45-minute lecture, which will be a discussion of the history of archaeological investigations at Moundville and an examination of how scientific techniques have changed over time to refine and increase knowledge of the Moundville people.

Reilly will then present recent findings in the iconography of Moundville art. By combining perspectives and methodologies from disciplines such as archaeology, folklore, ethnology and art history to compare with symbols found on objects, scholars have learned much about the cosmology of the Moundville people.

One object to be discussed will be the Willoughby Disk, a stone palette from Moundville on display in the recently renovated museum. Reilly served as the curator for the new exhibit, and so he will also relate how the study of iconography affected the new interpretations of Moundville’s art and ideologies.

The second lecture in the series, “Ancient Perspectives and Modern People: Moundville and Southeastern Indian Tribes,” is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Jones Archaeological Museum. This program consists of short presentations by Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, known as THPOs, from three federally recognized tribes followed by a moderated panel discussion with these representatives.

These THPOs — Robert Thrower, LaDonna Brown and Dr. Ian Thompson — will discuss how Moundville is an integral part of their individual tribal stories. Thrower, a traditional practitioner and THPO for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, was instrumental in creating the Poarch Creek Cultural Museum located on reservation lands near Atmore.

Brown, THPO for the Chickasaw Nation and member of the Raccoon Clan, brings great knowledge and insight about her tribal history. Thompson serves as the Choctaw Nation’s THPO and Tribal Archaeologist. In that capacity, he strives to preserve and revive much of the old Choctaw culture and traditions.

Each of these panelists will present their tribe’s origin stories and briefly discuss how Moundville fits in those viewpoints. A moderator-led discussion following the presentations will examine the position tribal entities take regarding research about the site, the resulting interpretations and how they are presented to park visitors.

The final part of the proposed lecture series, “Saving the Site: Moundville and the Civilian Conservation Corps,” will be held at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at Moundville’s Nelson B. Jones Conference Center. Robert Pasquill Jr., an archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service and author of the book “The Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama, 1933 – 1942,” is an expert on the CCC and will discuss its instrumental role in preserving and developing the Moundville site as a public park and museum.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the Works Progress Administration to alleviate some of the widespread unemployment facing the country’s citizens. The CCC was born out of this movement, and without their preservation efforts, invaluable information about Moundville and possibly the site itself, could have been destroyed.

As part of his presentation, Pasquill will set up a display featuring CCC memorabilia including buttons, banners and other historic items. Before and after his lecture, audience members can speak with Pasquill and examine artifacts.