Nodena Site
Encyclopedia
The Nodena Site is an archeological site east of Wilson, Arkansas
and northeast of Reverie, Tennessee
in Mississippi County, Arkansas
, United States
. Around 1400–1650 CE
an aboriginal
palisade
d village
existed in the Nodena area on a meander
bend of the Mississippi River
. The Nodena site was discovered and first documented by Dr. James K. Hampson, archaeologist and owner of the plantation on which the Nodena site is located. Artifacts
from this site are on display in the Hampson Museum State Park
in Wilson, Arkansas. The Nodena Site is the type site for the Nodena Phase
, believed by many archaeologists to be the province of Pacaha
visited by Spanish
explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542.
In 1900, a prehistoric mastodon
skeleton
was discovered 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site.
In 1964, the Nodena Site was declared a National Historic Landmark
and in 1966 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
.
component, the Nodena phase, which dates from about 1400–1700 CE. The Nodena Phase was a collection of villages (see Eaker Site
) along the Mississippi River between the Missouri Bootheel and Wapanocca Lake
. This culture is contemporary with the Menard Complex
, Tipton Phase
, Walls Phase
and the Parkin Phase. The Parkin Indian Mound
, the type site for the Parkin Phase, is the site of another Late Mississippian village located in Parkin
, Arkansas
, about 30 miles (48.3 km) southwest of Wilson. In the early 1540s, the Spanish
Hernando de Soto Expedition is believed to have visited several sites in the Nodena Phase, which is usually identified as the Province of Pacaha
. The Parkin Site is a candidate for the province of Casqui
.
Nodena people were part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
, an extensive religious and trade network that brought chert
, whelk
shells, and other exotic goods to the site.
The site was a 15 acres (6 ha) palisade
d village
on a horseshoe
bend of the Mississippi River
about 5 miles (8 km) east of Wilson, Arkansas. Archeological artifacts from the village
of the Nodena people are dated to 1400–1650 CE.
The site had three to eight mounds, two of them large substructure mounds. The largest, designated as "Mound A", was 111 feet (34 m) wide by 120 feet (37 m) long, and 15.5 feet (5 m) high. It had two levels, with the top being 40 feet (12 m) by 60 feet (18 m), and the terrace level being 30 feet (9 m) wide. The remains of three structures were found on the mound, one on the top level and two on the terrace level. The mound designated as "Mound B" was 117 feet (36 m) by 111 feet (34 m) by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. It had the remains of a 60 feet (18 m) diameter round structure found at its summit. The site also had several large plaza areas, and what Dr. Hampson described as a "chunkey
field", which was located directly behind Mound A. A circular mound, designated as "Mound C", was located at the other end of the chunkey field. It was roughly 93 feet (28 m) in diameter and 3 foot (0.9144 m) high. A large number of male graves, 314 of 316, were found buried under it.
The houses in the village were laid out in a very orderly fashion, located on the same axis as the mounds at the site, demonstrating that the whole site was planned. Members of the de Soto Entrada described the villages of the Pacaha and Nodena peoples as being the most carefully planned and organized of all the villages they had seen in "La Florida", which was what they called the entire southeast. The villages of this area were described as having few if any trees, probably because this was the primary source of fuel and building materials. Many trees close to the villages would have been cut down for these purposes. Homes were built from wattle and daub
, with thatched roofs. The palisade which surrounded the site was designed for defensive purposes. It had bastion
s at regular intervals, with archer slots to defend against enemy attacks. The peoples of Casqui and Pacaha were in a state of perpetual war
with one another, and most large sites throughout the area in this time period had this type of defensive palisade.
The de Soto chroniclers indicate that political provinces characterized by a paramount chief
living in a paramount town with satellite vassal
towns surrounding it were the major political institutions of this area. The Nodena site was either the main town or one of the larger satellite towns of the Pacaha province.
shell as a tempering agent, and isn't as smooth and polished as other varieties. Other kinds found there are much finer, with a finer ground shell as a temper, some instances being so finely ground as to look untempered. The Nodena Phase people put a bowl and a bottle into a grave with the bodies, usually of the finer variety of pottery. Shapes and decoration were varied in the mortuary pottery, from brighly colored abstract spiral designs, to elaborate effigy
vessels depicting human heads, animals, and hunters and their prey. Pottery made by the Nodena people was built up from strips of clay, and then smoothed out by the potter, much like other pottery
in the Eastern America area where the potters wheel was unknown. Slips
using galena
for white, hematite
for red, and sometimes graphite
for black were used to paint the pottery, with a red on white swastika design being particularly popular. Sometimes incising was used (an example is the incised raptor
image on the effigy head pot pictured), although it is rare in Nodena pottery.
The people of the Nodena phase practiced artificial cranial deformation
or head flattening. Shortly after infants were born, they were strapped to a special carrier which deformed their skulls as they grew. Many of the skeletal remains found at the Nodena Site had deformed skulls, of the type defined as fronto-occipital deformation, flattening of the forehead and the back of the head. Of 123 skulls found by Dr. Hampson, only six could be considered "normal", meaning they did not show the signs of head deformation. The functioning of the brain is not affected by cranial deformation, but the overall shape of the skull bones are. This practice was performed by many Native American tribes into historic times, including the Choctaw
, although it later fell out of favor.
agriculture, as well as other food crops originating in the Americas, such as beans, squash, sunflower
s and gourds. They also gathered wild foodstuffs such as pecan
s and persimmon
s. The de Soto choroniclers described the area as being under heavy cultivation, and the most populous they had seen in La Florida. The Spaniards described groves of wild fruit and nut bearing trees, implying that the Nodena must have left them standing when clearing other trees for the cultivation of maize
. The hunting of whitetail deer
, squirrel
, rabbit
, turkey
, and mallard
was practiced as well as fishing for alligator gar
, catfish
, drum
, and mussel
s.
or Siouan
speaking. It is known that the Tunica were in the area at the time of the de Soto Entrada, and the related group of phases present in the region may have all been Tunican speakers, with Caddoan
speakers to their west and south. But by the time of later European contact in the 1670s
and the beginning of the historic period, the area was occupied by the Dhegiha Siouan
speaking Quapaw
. Attempts have been made to connect pottery styles and words from the de Soto narratives with historic tribes, but have so far been unsuccessful.
and preserve the artifacts from the Nodena site and to document the discovery.
The Hampson Museum State Park
in Wilson, Arkansas
exhibits an archeological collection of early American
aboriginal
artifacts
from the Nodena Site. Cultivation of crops, hunting
, social life
, religion
and politics
of that ancient civilization are topics of the exhibition. Stone and shell artifacts as well as pottery are on display to illustrate the culture of the Nodena people.
genus
Mammut, they resemble modern elephants. Native to North America they are said to have lived on the North American continent
from almost 4 million years ago until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. In 1900, archaeologist Dr. James K. Hampson documented the find of skeletal
remains of a mastodon
on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site and 23 miles (37 km) south of Blytheville, Arkansas
. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed.
Wilson, Arkansas
Wilson is a town in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 939 at the 2000 census.The town was named after Robert E. Lee Wilson, a landowner and logging business owner in the area in the late 19th century....
and northeast of Reverie, Tennessee
Reverie, Tennessee
Reverie is an unincorporated community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States. In 2001, the population was 11.Over a period of about 24 hours on March 7, 1876, the Mississippi River abandoned its former channel that coincided with the Tennessee-Arkansas border, and established a new channel...
in Mississippi County, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Around 1400–1650 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
an aboriginal
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
d village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
existed in the Nodena area on a meander
Meander
A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...
bend of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The Nodena site was discovered and first documented by Dr. James K. Hampson, archaeologist and owner of the plantation on which the Nodena site is located. Artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
from this site are on display in the Hampson Museum State Park
Hampson Museum State Park
The Hampson Museum State Park in Wilson, Arkansas, U.S.A. exhibits an archeological collection of early American aboriginal artifacts from the Nodena Site. The Nodena Site is an archeological site east of Wilson and northeast of Reverie, Tennessee....
in Wilson, Arkansas. The Nodena Site is the type site for the Nodena Phase
Nodena Phase
The Nodena Phase is an archaeological phase in eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri of the Late Mississippian culture which dates from about 1400–1650 CE. The Nodena Phase is known from a collection of villages along the Mississippi River between the Missouri Bootheel and Wapanocca Lake...
, believed by many archaeologists to be the province of Pacaha
Pacaha
Pacaha was a Native American tribe encountered in 1541 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. This tribe inhabited fortified villages in what is today the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Arkansas...
visited by Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542.
In 1900, a prehistoric mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
was discovered 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site.
In 1964, the Nodena Site was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
and in 1966 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Culture of the Nodena people
Nodena is the type site for an important Late Mississippian culturalMississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
component, the Nodena phase, which dates from about 1400–1700 CE. The Nodena Phase was a collection of villages (see Eaker Site
Eaker Site
Eaker Site is an archaeological site on Eaker Air Force Base near Blytheville, Arkansas that was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1996....
) along the Mississippi River between the Missouri Bootheel and Wapanocca Lake
Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge
The Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge is a 5,484 acre wildlife refuge in Crittenden County, Arkansas, managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service....
. This culture is contemporary with the Menard Complex
Menard-Hodges Site
The Menard-Hodges Site , is an archaeological site in Arkansas. It includes two large mounds as well as several house mounds. It is the type site for the Menard phase, a protohistoric Mississippian culture group. It is considered as a possible candidate for the Province of Anilco encountered by the...
, Tipton Phase
Tipton Phase
The Tipton Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee of the Late Mississippian culture. Other contemporaneous groups in the area include the Parkin Phase, Walls Phase, Menard Phase, and the Nodena Phase. The Tipton Phase is the last prehistoric people to inhabit the area before the...
, Walls Phase
Walls Phase
The Walls Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee and northwestern Mississippi of the Late Mississippian culture. Chucalissa Indian Village is a Walls Phase mound and plaza complex located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Other contemporaneous groups in the area...
and the Parkin Phase. The Parkin Indian Mound
Parkin Archeological State Park
Parkin Archeological State Park, also known as Parkin Indian Mound, is an archeological site and state park in Parkin, Cross County, Arkansas. Around 1350–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed at the site, at the confluence of the St. Francis and Tyronza Rivers. Artifacts from this...
, the type site for the Parkin Phase, is the site of another Late Mississippian village located in Parkin
Parkin, Arkansas
Parkin is a city in Cross County, Arkansas, in the United States, along the St. Francis River. The population was 1,602 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Parkin is located at ....
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, about 30 miles (48.3 km) southwest of Wilson. In the early 1540s, the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Hernando de Soto Expedition is believed to have visited several sites in the Nodena Phase, which is usually identified as the Province of Pacaha
Pacaha
Pacaha was a Native American tribe encountered in 1541 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. This tribe inhabited fortified villages in what is today the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Arkansas...
. The Parkin Site is a candidate for the province of Casqui
Casqui
Casqui was a Native American tribe discovered in 1541 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. This tribe inhabited fortified villages in eastern Arkansas....
.
Nodena people were part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
, an extensive religious and trade network that brought chert
Mill Creek chert
Mill Creek chert is a type of chert found in Southern Illinois and heavily exploited by members of the Mississippian culture . Artifacts made from this material are found in archeological sites throughout the American Midwest and Southeast. It is named for a village and stream near the quarrys,...
, whelk
Whelk
Whelk, also spelled welk or even "wilks", is a common name used to mean one or more kinds of sea snail. The species, genera and families referred to using this common name vary a great deal from one geographic area to another...
shells, and other exotic goods to the site.
Nodena village 1400–1650 CE
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
d village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
on a horseshoe
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...
bend of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
about 5 miles (8 km) east of Wilson, Arkansas. Archeological artifacts from the village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
of the Nodena people are dated to 1400–1650 CE.
The site had three to eight mounds, two of them large substructure mounds. The largest, designated as "Mound A", was 111 feet (34 m) wide by 120 feet (37 m) long, and 15.5 feet (5 m) high. It had two levels, with the top being 40 feet (12 m) by 60 feet (18 m), and the terrace level being 30 feet (9 m) wide. The remains of three structures were found on the mound, one on the top level and two on the terrace level. The mound designated as "Mound B" was 117 feet (36 m) by 111 feet (34 m) by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. It had the remains of a 60 feet (18 m) diameter round structure found at its summit. The site also had several large plaza areas, and what Dr. Hampson described as a "chunkey
Chunkey
Chunkey is a game of Native American origin. It was played by rolling disc shaped stones across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to place the spear as close to the stopped stone as possible...
field", which was located directly behind Mound A. A circular mound, designated as "Mound C", was located at the other end of the chunkey field. It was roughly 93 feet (28 m) in diameter and 3 foot (0.9144 m) high. A large number of male graves, 314 of 316, were found buried under it.
The houses in the village were laid out in a very orderly fashion, located on the same axis as the mounds at the site, demonstrating that the whole site was planned. Members of the de Soto Entrada described the villages of the Pacaha and Nodena peoples as being the most carefully planned and organized of all the villages they had seen in "La Florida", which was what they called the entire southeast. The villages of this area were described as having few if any trees, probably because this was the primary source of fuel and building materials. Many trees close to the villages would have been cut down for these purposes. Homes were built from wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
, with thatched roofs. The palisade which surrounded the site was designed for defensive purposes. It had bastion
Bastion
A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
s at regular intervals, with archer slots to defend against enemy attacks. The peoples of Casqui and Pacaha were in a state of perpetual war
Endemic warfare
Endemic warfare is the state of continual, low-threshold warfare in a tribal warrior society. Endemic warfare is often highly ritualized and plays an important function in assisting the formation of a social structure among the tribes' men by proving themselves in battle.Ritual fighting permits...
with one another, and most large sites throughout the area in this time period had this type of defensive palisade.
The de Soto chroniclers indicate that political provinces characterized by a paramount chief
Paramount chief
A paramount chief is the highest-level traditional chief or political leader in a regional or local polity or country typically administered politically with a chief-based system. This definition is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple...
living in a paramount town with satellite vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
towns surrounding it were the major political institutions of this area. The Nodena site was either the main town or one of the larger satellite towns of the Pacaha province.
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Pottery
Most pottery found at the Nodena Site is of the kind known as Mississippian Bell Plain. It was buff colored, contains large fragments of ground musselMussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...
shell as a tempering agent, and isn't as smooth and polished as other varieties. Other kinds found there are much finer, with a finer ground shell as a temper, some instances being so finely ground as to look untempered. The Nodena Phase people put a bowl and a bottle into a grave with the bodies, usually of the finer variety of pottery. Shapes and decoration were varied in the mortuary pottery, from brighly colored abstract spiral designs, to elaborate effigy
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
vessels depicting human heads, animals, and hunters and their prey. Pottery made by the Nodena people was built up from strips of clay, and then smoothed out by the potter, much like other pottery
Native American pottery
Native American pottery is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks,...
in the Eastern America area where the potters wheel was unknown. Slips
Slip (ceramics)
A slip is a suspension in water of clay and/or other materials used in the production of ceramic ware. Deflocculant, such as sodium silicate, can be added to the slip to disperse the raw material particles...
using galena
Galena
Galena is the natural mineral form of lead sulfide. It is the most important lead ore mineral.Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms...
for white, hematite
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...
for red, and sometimes graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
for black were used to paint the pottery, with a red on white swastika design being particularly popular. Sometimes incising was used (an example is the incised raptor
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
image on the effigy head pot pictured), although it is rare in Nodena pottery.
Head deformation
Artificial cranial deformation
Artificial cranial deformation, head flattening, or head binding is a form of permanent body alteration in which the skull of a human being is intentionally deformed. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force...
or head flattening. Shortly after infants were born, they were strapped to a special carrier which deformed their skulls as they grew. Many of the skeletal remains found at the Nodena Site had deformed skulls, of the type defined as fronto-occipital deformation, flattening of the forehead and the back of the head. Of 123 skulls found by Dr. Hampson, only six could be considered "normal", meaning they did not show the signs of head deformation. The functioning of the brain is not affected by cranial deformation, but the overall shape of the skull bones are. This practice was performed by many Native American tribes into historic times, including the Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, although it later fell out of favor.
Agriculture and Food
The people of Nodena were intensely involved in maizeMaize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
agriculture, as well as other food crops originating in the Americas, such as beans, squash, sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s and gourds. They also gathered wild foodstuffs such as pecan
Pecan
The pecan , Carya illinoinensis, is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracruz, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana east to western Kentucky, southwestern Ohio, North Carolina, South...
s and persimmon
Persimmon
A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family . The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant...
s. The de Soto choroniclers described the area as being under heavy cultivation, and the most populous they had seen in La Florida. The Spaniards described groves of wild fruit and nut bearing trees, implying that the Nodena must have left them standing when clearing other trees for the cultivation of maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
. The hunting of whitetail deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
, rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
, turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and mallard
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
was practiced as well as fishing for alligator gar
Alligator gar
The Alligator Gar , Atractosteus spatula, is a primitive ray-finned fish. Unlike other Gars, the mature Alligator Gar possesses a dual row of large teeth in the upper jaw. Its name derives from the alligator-like appearance of these teeth along with the fish's elongated snout...
, catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
, drum
Sciaenidae
Sciaenidae is a family of fish commonly called drums, croakers, or hardheads for the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make...
, and mussel
Mussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...
s.
Language
The peoples of Nodena were probably TunicanTunica language
The Tunica language was a language isolate spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley by in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no known speakers of the Tunica language remaining.When the last known fluent speaker Sesostrie Youchigant died, the language became...
or Siouan
Siouan languages
The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a Native American language family of North America, and the second largest indigenous language family in North America, after Algonquian...
speaking. It is known that the Tunica were in the area at the time of the de Soto Entrada, and the related group of phases present in the region may have all been Tunican speakers, with Caddoan
Caddo language
Caddo is the only surviving Southern Caddoan language of the Caddo language family. It is spoken by the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Today, only 25 elderly speakers are estimated to remain, none of whom are monolingual Caddo speakers, making Caddo a critically endangered language...
speakers to their west and south. But by the time of later European contact in the 1670s
Jacques Marquette
Father Jacques Marquette S.J. , sometimes known as Père Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan...
and the beginning of the historic period, the area was occupied by the Dhegiha Siouan
Dhegihan
The Dhegihan languages are a group of Siouan languages that include Kansa–Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw. Their historical region included parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the Great Plains, and southeastern North America....
speaking Quapaw
Quapaw
The Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
. Attempts have been made to connect pottery styles and words from the de Soto narratives with historic tribes, but have so far been unsuccessful.
Dr. James K. Hampson
The museum for the Nodena Site is named after Dr. James K. Hampson (1877–1956), owner of the Hampson Plantation on which the Nodena site is located, and the first archaeologist to excavateExcavate
The excavates are a major kingdom of unicellular eukaryotes, often known as Excavata. The phylogenetic category Excavata, proposed by Cavalier-Smith in 2002, contains a variety of free-living and symbiotic forms, and also includes some important parasites of humans.-Characteristics:Many excavates...
and preserve the artifacts from the Nodena site and to document the discovery.
The Hampson Museum State Park
Hampson Museum State Park
The Hampson Museum State Park in Wilson, Arkansas, U.S.A. exhibits an archeological collection of early American aboriginal artifacts from the Nodena Site. The Nodena Site is an archeological site east of Wilson and northeast of Reverie, Tennessee....
in Wilson, Arkansas
Wilson, Arkansas
Wilson is a town in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 939 at the 2000 census.The town was named after Robert E. Lee Wilson, a landowner and logging business owner in the area in the late 19th century....
exhibits an archeological collection of early American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
aboriginal
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
from the Nodena Site. Cultivation of crops, hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, social life
Social life
Social life may refer to:* an individual's Interpersonal relationships* Social relation * Social Life, an album by Koufax* Social Life, the indie/punk band from Greensboro, North Carolina....
, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
of that ancient civilization are topics of the exhibition. Stone and shell artifacts as well as pottery are on display to illustrate the culture of the Nodena people.
Prehistoric Mastodon skeleton
Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinctExtinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Mammut, they resemble modern elephants. Native to North America they are said to have lived on the North American continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
from almost 4 million years ago until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. In 1900, archaeologist Dr. James K. Hampson documented the find of skeletal
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
remains of a mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site and 23 miles (37 km) south of Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville is the largest city in and one of the two county seats of Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 15,620 at the 2010 census....
. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed.
See also
- Eaker SiteEaker SiteEaker Site is an archaeological site on Eaker Air Force Base near Blytheville, Arkansas that was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1996....
- Mississippian cultureMississippian cultureThe Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
- Southeastern Ceremonial ComplexSoutheastern Ceremonial ComplexThe Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
- List of Mississippian sites
- List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
- List of burial mounds in the United States