In the Greensboro cemetery:
Diorama Pics from the Moundville Museum (these are *great*!!)
Diorama from museum at Moundville
Artifacts in the Moundville Museum
These were all shots from inside the Moundville museum (see my entry from yesterday for more about Moundville).
This artifact has a hamsa symbol in the middle! This is supposed to be what’s referred to as a ‘Southern Cult’ piece, I think.
canoe
vessel
doggie
arrowheads
Largest City in North America 800 Years Ago : Moundville
Av and I visited Moundville, AL for the first time this weekend. 800 years ago, Moundville was the largest city in North America, with about 1000 people living in this direct area and another 10,000 or so in the valley. It was populated mostly from 1000 CE to 1450 CE.
There are about two dozen mounds total.
We had a great time walking around. At first I was afraid that it was sacreligious to go climb up the chief’s mound, because I thought that people were buried in the mounds – but apparently it was regular practice to build huts and other buildings on top of the taller mounds, and it was the smaller, shorter mounds that held burials. The shorter mounds are off-limits anyway, so I didn’t have anything to worry about.
Of the burial mounds, the higher-status individuals were buried with copper axes and ‘Southern Cult’ pieces, like a hamsa symbol (a (hand) palm with an eye in the center). For people whose burials were more simple, there might only be a few pots found with them. Over 3000 burials have been excavated.
There were residential sections, the north-east corner being probably the nicest. There were also craft workshops (shells, ceramics, etc), and a sweat house, among other structures. I don’t believe any of those have survived.
I am soooo glad we finally got to visit….it’s so pretty – and I am in LOVE with the totally-retro museum (in an upcoming post). Here are pics of Moundville:
Representation of the Chief’s home
Art in Quiet Places #4
From Tuscaloosa’s Greenwood cemetery, across the street from Bryant-Denny Stadium (earliest grave here is marked 1821):
in the shadows of Bryant-Denny Stadium at Bama
Hampton Inn, Auburn AL
Our room
Room: This was a very average Hampton room – from furnishings to room size.
Lobby: Again, average.
Service: Friendly.
Food: Av snacked a bit at their breakfast and said it was okay.
Extra: Common areas showing some age (but not really significant).
Our experience is this: we arrived in Auburn pretty late, so this Hampton was fine, although average in *every* way. If we had stayed more than a few hours, we would have probably stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn or – if we’d been there two or more days – the Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel and Conference Center at Grand National, which looks very nice (and is one of the properties the RSA owns).
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