where were we?

perhaps this is an occasion for another contest: where were we?

i've seen grass-covered mounds in Kyong-ju, South Korea; in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden; and Chillicothe, Ohio...but these are in Moundville, Alabama, south of Tuscaloosa. we stopped for a look on our way driving from Atlanta to Starkville, Mississippi, with Marcia and Oded.

Moundville was a large Missisippian Culture fortified town of about 1,000 inhabitants, occupied from about 1000 to 1450 a.d. it was one of the largest cities in North America at the time, and about 10,000 people lived in the surrounding area. There are thirty-two mounds arranged around a central plaza.
the largest mound is about 58 feet high. archeologists think that the highest ranking clan probably occupied this. apparantly later in the centuries, the area ceased to be inhabited and became a sacred site. but i was frustrated by the lack of information about this. which points to the importance of label and brochures and visitor's guides.


unfortunately, the museum was closed for renovation. it houses some remarkable objects found on the site. without much context for these mounds, it was hard to visualize how the area would have looked. we were almost the only people there and in fact it seemed a little melancholy to me, just these grassy mounds set in the open.


oded and marcia, wearing her 'boot' and on her high-tech rolling scooter. marcia had surgery on her foot and can't put any weight on it for six weeks. we went to atlanta to help to amuse her, but they were perfect hosts and amused us instead.

more to come soon on our adventures in southern cuisine...