Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi

5. The Nodena Phase

5 The Nodena Phase DanE Morse Theextinct societies of northeastern Arkansas are classified by archaeologists into broad cultural periods. The cultural period for the Nodena site is the Mississippian period of ca. A.D. 800-1650 ± 100 years. During Mississippian times a special environmental adaptation took place in much of the eastern United States. Maize floodplain agriculture, the bow and arrow, shell-tempered pottery; and a complex tribal organization called chiefdom (Morse and Morse 1983:201-13) are the major characteristics . By virtue of particular styles of artifacts, the people who inhabited Nodena phase sites can be more securely classified as "late period Mississippian" or as dating somewhere within the A.D. 1400-1650 period. Because of Dr. James K. Hampson's work at the Upper Nodena site and his generosity in sharing his work with professional archaeologists, the site was chosen in 1954 by Stephen Williams as the type site for a geographical expression named the Nodena phase (Phillips 1970:933-34). "Nodena phase" is not what those people called themselves; the name is an archaeological classification. However, we think the people who lived near Nodena in 1541 called themselves the inhabitants of the province of "Pacaha" (Hudson 1985). "Pacaha" is thought generally to encompass our archaeological "Nodena phase" to the extent that we are confident we have been able to isolate a functioning extinct society. Pacaha was the major chiefdom of the Central Mississippi Valley, and if Nodena was indeed Pacaha, then we are translating a most unusual story. Unfortunately, many pages are missing from the book, due to vandalism and to land leveling. The funds spent to investigate the Nodena phase professionally would barely purchase a single exotic pot of the thousands dug by treasure hunters over the past century. There is a war be69 70 • Dan F. Morse tween science and greed, and so far greed is winning. Dr. Hampson was one of the very few early avocational archaeologist" of means who opted for science , and it is fitting that Nodena lives on in his memory. Stephen Williams named the Nodena phase in a paper read at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in 1954 (Phillips 1970:933-34). Previously , Griffin (1952a:233) had included it as part of the Walls-Pecan Point complex on the basis of a tight ceramic similarity that extended from the Pecan Point site in Mississippi County; Arkansas, to the Walls site in De Soto County; Mississippi. Williams, however, made an extensive study of the pottery in Dr. Hampson's collection from Nodena and concluded that a further subdivision was necessary. The Nodena phase has never been adequately defined. As Phillips states: "Nodena is no more in need of exact definition than are three-fourths of the other phases dealt with in this section.... This will continue until that faroff time when the formulation of cultural units on the firm basis of excavation data and stratigraphy becomes the rule rather than the exception" (1970:934-35). The Upper Nodena Site The site of Upper Nodena, type site for the Nodena phase, was first scientifically investigated by James K. Hampson from 1897 until about 1941 (Morse 1973a; Williams 1957). The University of Arkansas Museum and the Alabama State Museum of Natural History excavated at the site during the late winter and early spring of 1932 as a joint expedition. Dan E Morse directed a test excavation at Upper Nodena in the summer of 1973 as part of the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University combined field schools (Morse 1973b). On the basis of Dr. Hampson's notes, some older aerial photographs, and a general surface collection made in 1970 at the Site, we formulated a tentative village plan (Figure 5-1). These data were verified to a large degree by a photograph of a scale model constructed by Dr. Hampson (Ferguson and Atkinson 1966; Morse 1973b:Figure 39). The data indicate an organized and well-demarcated rectangular village measuring ca. 15.5 acres (6.2 ha) in extent and situated next to a relict meander channel (Morse 1973a:Figure 38). This village plan should be verified by a controlled surface collection and through test excavation of specific expected village features. We began the research with Dr. Hampson's lone remaining map and his unpublished manuscripts. His large table model of Upper Nodena and his field maps disappeared several years ago. Farming has altered the landscape - - - I _ - - - - ,---t-----UNEXCAVATED / M?__E2...