Nodena site

Nodena is the type site for an important Late Mississippian cultural 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 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 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. Nodena village 1400–1650 CE The site was a palisaded village on a horseshoe bend of the Mississippi River about east of Wilson, Arkansas. Archaeological artifacts from the villages 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 wide by long, and high. It had two levels, with the top being by , and the terrace level being 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 by by tall. It had the remains of a diameter round structure found at its summit. The site also had several large plaza areas, and what 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 in diameter and 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. ==Dr. James K. Hampson==

The museum for the Nodena Site is named after James K. Hampson (1877–1956), owner of the Hampson Plantation on which the site is located, and the first archaeologist to excavate and preserve its artifacts and to document their discovery. The Hampson Museum State Park in Wilson, Arkansas exhibits an archeological collection of early American Indian 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. ==Prehistoric Mastodon skeleton==

Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinct genus Mammut; they resemble modern elephants. Native to North America, they are said to have lived on the continent from almost 4 million years ago until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. In 1900, archaeologist James K. Hampson documented the find of skeletal remains of a mastodon on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River, south of the Nodena Site and south of Blytheville, Arkansas. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed. ==See also==