Capturing Moundville’s Magic

by Chris Bryant

A $3 million makeover of the Moundville Archaeological Park’s museum will allow display of its world-class Mississippian Indian artifacts in a manner befitting the site of one of the Top 100 tourist events in the United States and Canada.

The park is home to the annual Moundville Native American Festival, which the nation’s leading trade association for tour group operators selected for its 2006 list of top events across the two countries.

This designation by the American Bus Association comes on the heels of the park’s selection by National Geographic Explorer magazine as a featured site for Appalachia geotourism. And that bit of distinction followed a spring 2005 cover story in American Archaeology magazine, delving into the scientific research, past and present, at the mounds.

William F. “Bill” Bomar, director of the park, said a recent study indicated expanding and revamping the museum could increase the Moundville Archaeological Park’s annual economic impact on the region to $2.1 million through heritage tourism. Fund-raising efforts to make the renovations and expansion possible are under way.

Upon completion, the expanded museum will give visitors a multi-media powered glimpse into the world as it once was in Moundville, Bomar said.

“The artifacts will be displayed in a beautiful gallery setting. You are going to step in here and realize that you are looking at one of the finest examples of Mississippian Indian artifact collections in the United States,” Bomar said. A team of scholars, drawing from the latest scientific research from Moundville, joined with Native Americans to develop the exhibit plan.

In addition to those attending the October festival, which annually attracts some 16,000 people, the revitalized museum will educate, entertain and attract visitors to the park year-round.

The museum will be divided into three distinct zones representing Moundville’s Inner World, its Outer World, and the joining of worlds. The Inner World section will focus on artifacts and exhibits specific to Moundville life — its politics, art, gender roles and how its chiefs came to power. The Outer World section will contain exhibits focusing on how Moundville’s role fit within the scope of the outside world at the time – its trade, warfare and religious beliefs.

The museum’s central section joins the other two worlds both figuratively, through its contents, and literally, through its location. The focus of the central exhibit will be an incredible wedding scene, featuring life-like participants dressed in regalia that mimics, as closely as possible, what researchers believe Moundville’s former inhabitants might have worn to such an event.

“A wedding is something everyone can relate to,” Bomar said. “It’s also the one rite of passage that all of the other scenes can branch out from. Diplomacy, warfare, religion, politics – they all can be related to this scene. We’re connecting the inner world to the outer world.”

The Museum will draw upon some of the latest in multi-media displays to captivate its visitors with life-like presentations of those who might have been encountered during a 14th-century visit to the site.

Using a technique known as Pepper’s Ghost – an illusory method often used in theater and theme parks that exploits a hidden panel of glass, and special lighting practices that make three-dimensional projections seem to suddenly appear or disappear – visitors will encounter a shaman, or priest, who will appear to leap from the sparks of a nearby simulated fire. Bomar predicts the allusion, typifying the mystical former resident’s love of his home, will be “stunning.”

It was a rare thing for a Moundville resident to venture far from the region and the shaman simulation will do so, with much trepidation, Bomar said. “He’s starting to get scared, and you can hear his heart pounding in the surround sound,” as Bomar envisions the scene. “His flesh will transform into a map of the Southeast and where his heart is pounding will become Moundville, his veins and arteries transforming into the rivers and tributaries.”

Further Reading

• Mighty, Mysterious Moundville