Hampson Archeological Museum State Park is a Arkansas state park in Mississippi County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The museum contains a collection of archeological artifacts from the Nodena site, which is a former Native American village on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

between 1400 and 1650. James K. Hampson began excavating the site in the 1920s, a museum was built in 1946 and the Arkansas General Assembly officially accepted the collection of artifacts from the Hampson family on March 30, 1957. The park first opened in 1961 as Hampson Museum State Park and has since been renamed. Around 1400-1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

existed in the Nodena area on a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...

bend of the

. Artifacts from this site are on display in the Hampson Museum State Park. Visiomania.com, Hampson Museumhttp://www.arkansasstateparks.com/hampsonmuseum/ ArkansasStateParks.com, Hampson Museum The museum is named after James K. Hampson, a local landowner and archaeologist.

Nodena village: 1400-1650 CE

About 5 mi (8 km) east of Wilson, at the Nodena site, archeological artifacts from an aboriginal village of the Nodena people dated 1400-1650 CE were found in the first half of the 20th century. A collection of these artifacts is on display at the Hampson Museum State Park. The

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

documents the

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

of the

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

of the Nodena people, who lived in a palisaded village on a horseshoe bend of the Mississippi River in the Wilson, Arkansas area. Cultivation of crops,

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

, social life,

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

of that ancient civilization are topics of the exhibition. In 1964 the Nodena site was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. In 1966 it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The Parkin Indian Mound is the site of another Indian village contemporary with the Nodena people, located in Parkin,

, about 30 mi (50 km) southwest of Wilson.

James K. Hampson

The museum is named after James K. Hampson (1877-1956), owner of the Hampson Plantation on which the Nodena site is located, and archaeologist to excavate and

preserve The word preserve may refer to: Common uses * Fruit preserves, a type of sweet spread or condiment * Nature reserve, an area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or other special interest, usually protected Arts, entertainment, and media ...

the artifacts from the Nodena site. In 1900 James K. Hampson documented the discovery of a prehistoric

mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

skeleton 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site.

Prehistoric Mastodon skeleton

Mastodons A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

are members of the prehistoric, extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Mammut'', they resemble modern elephants. Native to North America they are said to have lived on the North American

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas t ...

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, 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the Nodena site and 23 mi (37 km) south of

Blytheville, Arkansas Blytheville is the county seat and the largest city in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. It is approximately north of West Memphis. The population was 13,406 at the 2020 census, down from 15,620 in 2010. History Blytheville was foun ...

. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed. Fossilized bones from the find are on display at the Hampson Museum State Park. The museum was closed in 2017 to move into a new building on the Wilson city square. It is scheduled to reopen some time in the summer of 2018. Call 870-655-8622 for further information.

References

External links

Hampson Archaeological Museum State Park

{{authority control State parks of Arkansas Native American museums in Arkansas Archaeological museums in Arkansas Museums in Mississippi County, Arkansas Protected areas of Mississippi County, Arkansas Museums established in 1946 1946 establishments in Arkansas Protected areas established in 1961 1961 establishments in Arkansas Nodena Phase Wilson, Arkansas

Nodena village: 1400-1650 CE

James K. Hampson

Prehistoric Mastodon skeleton

See also

References

External links