The Museum of A and A

We’re having a heat wave here in America’s Heartland.  I don’t know about you, but extreme heat makes me both sleepy and short of breath. To avoid the tragedy of heat stroke, I’m visiting various museums in this vibrant and charming town of ours.

The City on the River exhibit at The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology explores the culture of the people who lived at Angel Mounds in Southern Indiana from 1100 to 1450 or thereabouts.  No one is positive why these people left their busy city on the Ohio, but they did. Lucky for us, an IU professor was the principal archaeologist at Angel Mounds, so the museum has an impressive collection of artifacts. The museum took care to include Indigenous artists and historians of today in the curation of the exhibit. 

Between 2 and 3 thousand people lived in this city which was built using sophisticated geometric and astronomic principles. In addition to building mounds, the people grew crops and made a boatload of pottery.  They traded far and wide using river transport. 

To tell you the honest truth, I already knew a lot of the information in the exhibit because I’ve been teaching about this time in prehistoric Indiana for years now and have done quite a bit of my own research, but I predict that you, who may not know as much as I do, will learn a thing or two.  You should visit the museum if you feel like it.