Madison Park

madison park

Over a thousand years ago, American Indians lived along the waterways we now know as the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers that flow around the modern city of Montgomery, Alabama. Archaeologists have named the time period from AD 700 to 900 the Hope Hull phase of the Late Woodland period. Hope Hull people traveled along and fished in these rivers, from their villages on the small terraces above the water's edge. The fertile floodplain of the river valleys provided wild foods such as berries and nuts, and grazing animals like deer that were hunted for meat.

NEW EXPANSION - Updated August 16, 2010

LITHIC ANALYSIS - By Tara Potts and Dr. Philip Carr
Lithic artifacts recovered from 1MT318, the Madison Park site, include triangular points and other bifaces, cores, and flake debris from the manufacture of stone tools. In addition, there are a few specimens of ground or pecked stones, and unmodified stone, which are presumed manuports. In the following pages we will discuss the methodological approach used in the lithic analysis, culture historical periods represented by the stone tools, reconstructing cultural lifeways, mass analysis, and our conclusions.

Pottery Analysis by Sarah E. Price
The Madison Park ceramic analysis concentrated on three questions. First, since Dead River and Hope Hull phase ceramics are not usually recovered from the same site, why are both present in the Madison Park assemblage? In essence, do these types represent distinct Late Woodland phases? Second, what functions/uses did the ceramics serve at Madison Park? Third, did vessel function change through time? The following page presents a discussion of the Madison Park ceramic assemblage in regard to these research questions.

Archaeologists from the Center for Archaeological Studies at the University of South Alabama excavated a Hope Hull village, the Madison Park site, before road improvements to State Route 231 and Todd Road were carried out by the Alabama Department of Transportation. This project was funded by the Alabama Department of Transportation.