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.

Hope Hull women made ceramic jars and bowls for various uses like storing and preparing food. Most pottery was not decorated, but a few pots were incised with designs or painted with brilliant orange and red clay slips.

Hunting tools were chipped out of quartz and chert pebbles the Hope Hull people found in the local river beds. The bow and arrow is thought to have been in widespread use by Hope Hull times.

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.

How did Hope Hull people exploit the environment for raw materials to make tools and pottery? What kinds of fish and game did they eat? What was the size, shape, and construction methods of their homes? We hope to answer these questions and learn more about the daily lives of Hope Hull people by digging deeper into the data found at the Madison Park site.

As discoveries are made at the excavations and in the laboratory, we will add updates to this portion of our website.

This project was funded by the Alabama Department of Transportation