Short URL

Parkin Archaeological Recreation

 

Other Visualization/Animation areas:

Loading, please wait...

For many centuries the Mississippi Valley was the home of many large and rich Native American societies -- but time has hidden or destroyed much of the evidence of these extraordinary  communities. Where once there were thousands of inhabitants, houses, temples and fortifications, today there may  now only be a grassy field.  Computer based visualizations and animations of these sites and their structures can serve as valuable ways to "recreate" some of this rich past and make them more accessible to the public.

In addition to their public interpretation value, however, detailed archaeological visualizations also can play an important research role, as the demands of the visualization require answers to questions about the architecture, tools, clothing and other aspects of the past that may not always be readily evident in the archaeological record. Because the computer techniques are flexible it is possible to conduct "what if" analyses. 

Working closely with archaeologists and scholars a series of student teams have (re)created a single house from one of these ancient communities in the Mississippi Valley, the Parkin Archaeological State Park.  Parkin is located along the St. Francis River and was the site of a 17-acre Native American village from A.D. 1300 to 1550. A large ceremonial mound along the bank of the river still remains today. Many scholars believe it is the Native American village of Casqui, visited and described by the expedition of Hernando de Soto in the summer. of 1541. In collaboration with Arkansas State Parks, The Arkansas Archaeological Survey has located a research station there and conducted extensive field investigations.  The site became a National Historic Landmark in 1964.  For more information on the Parkin archaeological site, visit Ancient Monuments in Arkansas.

In 2001 and 2002, as part of the CRATE Internship Program, a 3D recreation was completed for  aspects of Casqui. The interns for 2001 were Kent Walker (Fayetteville High), Aaron White (Need school), and Harlan Skinner (Gravette High). The interns for 2002 were Kent Walker (who returned from the 2001 project) and Jeremy Bain and Justin Reh of the Rogers High School.

Working closely with Snow Winters and other CAST staff over two summers, the students worked on creating a number of visualization products that attempted to captured a Casqui villager’s daily life and the area around the site. The students put together an animation that focused on the interior of a single home complete with artifacts, people and a story. They created a number of products these included (1) the animated movie of the interior of the Casqui home, (2) an animated fly-over recreating a portion of the St. Francis River near the Casqui Villiage and (3) several interactive movies of objects and the home using  Quicktime VR’s - that the user can navigate through with the use of the mouse. The students used SoftImage XSI, Adobe Photoshop and Virtual Nature Studio to create the visulaizations. The students also created a Power Point presentation explaining how the project was completed and three posters.

 

For more on the Parkin project go to http://www.cast.uark.edu/education/cadis_crate/crate/project2002/movie/index.htm