The Location of the Historic Natchez Villages, Revisited - Natchez, Mississippi

Visit Grand Village of the Natchez Indians on Thursday, June 9 at 6 pm, to hear Vin Steponaitis’ presentation, “The Location of the Historic Natchez Villages, Revisited”. In the 1720s the Natchez nation, as described in contemporary French accounts, consisted of at least six towns: Grand, Farine, Pomme, Tioux, Grigra, and Jenzenaque. Building on the work of Andrew Albrecht, Ian Brown, and James Barnett, and taking into account eighteenth-century manuscript maps and narratives that have recently come to light, Steponaitis will re-examine the evidence for the nature of these towns and where they were located on the modern landscape.

Steponaitis is professor of archaeology and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he served as the director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC Chapel Hill from 1988 until 2016, when he stepped down from that position to serve as the Secretary of the Faculty and the Director of the Office of Faculty Governance. He has authored numerous books, monographs and articles on the archaeology of the southeastern United States and his current research focuses on the Moundville site in Alabama, Mississippian art and iconography, and the archaeology of the Natchez Bluffs where his first archaeological work occurred as an undergraduate.

The event is free and open to the public.

Grand Village of the Natchez Indians is located at 400 Jefferson Davis Blvd, Natchez, Mississippi 39120. For more information about Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, go to www.mdah.ms.gov/new/visit/grand-village-of-natchez-indians/.