Village life at the Parkin Site
Head effigy vessels from Parkin and other sites in northeast Arkansas provide information about the physical appearance of the original Parkin residents. (Courtesy Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism).
Head effigy vessels from Parkin and other sites in northeast Arkansas provide information about the physical appearance of the original Parkin residents. (Courtesy Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism).
Archeologists still have many questions about the everyday life of people
living at the Parkin site. We do know that the site was surrounded by a
moat and a log palisade wall for
protection. Agricultural fields for growing corn, beans, and other crops
were located outside the moat. The houses were probably similar to the
Mississippian structure pictured here. The Mississippians lived in
solidly constructed one room houses. The roof was thatched and the walls
were covered
with mats of grass or cane twigs that were plastered with clay. This is
called "wattle and daub" construction. The
thick wall posts were set deep in the ground, like fence posts. When a
Mississippian house fell into decay or burned,
the wall posts would leave a clear pattern of dark stained "post molds"
in the ground. Archeologists can find these
"post mold patterns" hundreds of years after all other traces of the
houses have disappeared. From post mold
patterns, we know Mississippian houses were quite spacious, with wall
dimensions between 20x20 and 20x30 feet.
(Courtesy Arkansas Archeological Survey).
We know what type of art was being done by the people in the village because
head effigy vessels similar to the one shown here have been
found at the Parkin site. "Headpots," as they are called by collectors,
represent the apogee of the Mississippian potter's art. No two are alike
in facial features or ornament so it seems that they were portraits in
clay of particular people, perhaps made when
they died.The lines on the face of this person probably represent the
tattooing that was so important to the
Mississippians and other Southeastern Indians. According to early
European observers, who did not appreciate the
beauty of tattooing, most Souteastern Indians "disfigured" their faces
and their bodies with elaborate tattooing. (Photograph courtesy Arkansas
Archeological Survey).
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