The central Mississippi valley has a long history of human occupation dating back to at least 12,000 years ago and continuing to the present day. Throughout this long time period, the lifestyles, daily activities, and beliefs of the people who lived here have changed. Over time, these changes manifest themselves in ways that serve to define the particular culture responsible for them. These cultures are defined over a geographic area and the time period in which they existed. Culture areas can be further refined by archaeologists into phases, which refer to smaller, sub-areas of a particular cultural group during a specific span of time within an area. The archeological remains of the Native American groups that were living in the northwestern portion of the central Mississippi valley (an area that today includes northeastern Arkansas and the Bootheel of South East Missouri) from about 1450 to 1650 AD are referred to by archaeologists as the Nodena phase, named after the archeological sites on the Hampson farm. The Nodena people were farmers, growing corn, beans, and squash, as well as tending and collecting a wide variety of wild plant foods. They hunted a variety of local wildlife, especially white-tailed deer and migratory waterfowl, and caught large quantities of fish in oxbow and seasonal lakes. Some Nodena towns may have been surrounded by a ditch or a combination of a ditch and palisade wall. Towns consisted of closely-spaced houses, as well as smaller structures for storing corn, drying meat, or preparing animal hides. The focus of larger Nodena settlements was one or more rectangular, flat-topped earthen mounds that supported civic and religious buildings. Throughout the central Mississippi valley and the greater Midsouth, the prehistoric houses were square and constructed of timbers set into trenches in the ground. Lengths of cane were “woven” between these timbers and the resulting walls were sealed with packed clay, a technique referred to as “wattle and daub.” House floors were also packed with clay to produce a flat living surface. A centrally located hearth provided warmth and a cooking fire. Dr. Hampson excavated a number of such houses at the Upper Nodena site. The Nodena people fashioned tools and implements from stone, wood, bone and antler, and shell. Their arrows were tipped by small willow leaf-shaped points, dubbed by archaeologists as the Nodena point type. They also made a wide variety of implements for gardening and hide preparation. Woodworking and basketry were common endeavors for the Nodena people, and they created ornamental objects from bone, shell, and stone. Ceramics were produced by mixing local backswamp clays tempered with crushed mussel shell. Some of the ceramic vessels by the Nodena people and their neighbors were quite artistic, including painted red and white swirls, complex incised designs (including portraits of mythical figures), and modeled effigy vessels representing people and various animals. Most of the ceramic vessels in Dr. Hampson’s collection probably were not made not for utilitarian (everyday) use, but rather for ritual use, including burial with the dead.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 04:51:34 +0000
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