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Union County Completes I Society Offers
»„ i ■ x Online History
Ingomar Mound Project ArtiCieSj Bios
Anthropology professor Evan Peacock (seated at center) from the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University demonstrates how stone was flaked to form artifacts during an Archaeology Month event at Ingomar Mound.
A two-thousand-year-old Native American mound in northeast Mississippi was the centerpiece for a recently completed comprehensive interpretation project undertaken by the Union County Historical Society and Heritage Museum, the Union County Board of Supervisors, the City of New Albany, and the Archaeological Conservancy. Standing about thirty feet tall in the middle of sixty-three acres of green space, Ingomar Mound is the only visible evidence of what was once a large ceremonial center consisting of approximately one dozen mounds. Thanks to the effort of the partnership and a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, visitors to the site can now enjoy interpretive signs, two outdoor classrooms, a one-mile nature trail, and a paved parking area.
“I think it appeals to people that the work is not invasive to the site,” said Jill Smith, director of the Union County Heritage Museum, “but allows them the freedom to explore a culture that was here two thousand years ago and to enjoy the surrounding green space.”
Objects excavated from the mound complex in 1894 are on exhibit at the museum, which is administered by the society. Artifacts include flint points, pottery shards, a stone hoe, and a small
silver medallion featuring a Spanish coat-of-arms. After being collected by the Bureau of American Ethnology the artifacts were sent to the Smithsonian Institution, which retains them in their collection and loans them to the Union County Heritage Museum on an ongoing basis.
Each October the historical society, in partnership with the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University, hosts an annual Archaeology Month event. Past activities have included stargazing, flint-knapping, ancient weapons programs, pottery demonstrations, artifact identification sessions, and more.
New partnerships include a project with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, whose staff volunteered to survey the site and help reestablish native grasses, with assistance from the Jamie L. Whitten Plant Materials Center. A local Boy Scout is planning a project to place signs on the site about the native plants and their uses by Native Americans.
The site is open to the public free of charge every day from dawn to dusk. Programs for visiting groups are available by appointment through the Union County Heritage Museum. For more information call 662-538-0014 or email jill@ucheritgemuseum.com.
Mississippi History Now is a free online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society that offers articles on a broad range of topics related to Mississippi and Mississippi history. Launched twelve years ago, the site now has more than 130 richly illustrated articles plus profiles of all Mississippi governors available in its searchable archives, and lesson plans are included with each to make using the information in the classroom easy for teachers.
A profile of Mississippi’s new governor Phil Bryant launches the upcoming season. Other scheduled articles include the history of Mississippi University for Women, the 1862 Battle of Iuka, and the Carrollton Courthouse Massacre of 1886. Recent articles have examined the Clyde Kennard case, shipbuilding on the Gulf Coast, reapportionment, state NAACP leader Aaron Henry, nineteenth-century novelist and biographer Sarah Ann Dorsey, rural electrification in northeast Mississippi, and the Vietnamese in Mississippi.
“Over our dozen years we have featured articles not just on the most famous and well-known of the state’s people and events, but also the lesser-known but significant moments in Mississippi history. There is truly something for everyone available on the site,” said editor Peggy Jeanes. “Mississippi History Now is the society’s gift to the people of Mississippi and elsewhere, and I hope everyone will take advantage of this treasure trove of information about our state.”
Mississippi History NO W is published by the Mississippi Historical Society. The Web site is funded entirely through tax-deductible donations from individuals, companies, and foundations, and grants from MDAH, MHS, and the Mississippi Humanities Council. Anyone wishing to support the ongoing work of the site may send contributions to the Mississippi Historical Society, P.O. Box 571, Jackson, Mississippi 39205-0571, earmarked for Mississippi History Now.
Find Mississippi History Now online at mshistory.kl2.ms.us, or by searching for “Mississippi History Now.” For more information contact Peggy Jeanes at 601-956-4547 or by email at pjeanes@earthlink.net.