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Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies

University of Arkansas

3D Nodena Village

Home » Research » Archaeology/Historic Preservation » Archaeological Visualization » 3D Nodena Village

As part of the Hampson Virtual Museum Project,  a series of 3D visualizations of the pre-Columbian, Mississippian Period Nodena Village in north-eastern Arkansas have been created. In the first phase of the project (2007-2008) initial visualizations of the site locale, architecture and agricultural fields were created. The images are accessible within the Hampson Virtual Museum at hampsonmuseum.cast.uark.edu/nodena_3d.htm .  In 2008-2009 these will be expanded, updated and improved.

Visualization as a vehicle to interrogate the past

A key element of the project was to see visualization as a method to interrogate the past. In this sense visualizations link sources from the archaeological, historic and traditional Indian community. In creating a single image many specific decisions had to be made. In creating a house, for example, we needed to decide how tall the walls are to be, how thick they were, what color they were and so on. The same is true for all aspects of the recreation. In the Nodena Village FAQ  we attempt to provide the basis for each of the decisions that were made and the links to the historic records, traditional community knowledge and archaeological data.

Archaeological data were an important source for the visualizations but they also have their  limitations. We have made a conscious decision to be strongly directed by the archaeological data but not limited by it. If we only (re)created elements of the site that were known from archaeological data we would provide an image that was scientifically "accurate" but clearly untrue and not authentic. We would be forced to leave out many things that we can be certain were present, such as cooking areas, drying racks and many other items of everyday life that were present but (usually) not preserved or discovered in the archaeological record. In an ideal world we would want to give our images to a Nodena villager who would agree that these "looked like her home." Of course this is impossible -- but we keep this ideal in mind.

Another important source is traditional knowledge from various Indian communities. In this we draw upon artistic traditions, art styles, narratives and other sources. This is an area of the FAQ that we hope to grow much more over time.

Our over all approach has been to evaluate all the various lines of evidence and inferences and to carefully aggregate and evaluate all these sources. In any event we have provided the basis for these decisions in the FAQ.

It is also important to remember that any image is just one of many possible images. The evidence and the sources do not usually provide a single, unequivocal answer. Often there are two, or more, different possibilities. Fortunately the computer visualization techniques that we have used provide a great deal of flexibility. Once we have created a single house it is then possible to ask the software to place one, a dozen or even 100 across the area.

Nodean Village background

The Upper Nodena Site occupied an area of approximately 15 acres. It is located on a relict channel of the Mississippi river in northeastern Arkansas and is considered to be occupied between A.D. 1400-1600. The site had a ceremonial or 'corporate' complex of two pyramidal mounds, a burial mound, and (possibly) a plaza connecting the mounds and a chunkey field. Archaeologists estimate that the town's population was between 1000 and 1500 at any given time during its 100 years of occupation.

The village also included nearby agricultural fields and groves. The residents of the town practiced maize and bean agriculture, and consumed many local wild plants, such as hickory nuts, black walnuts, hazelnuts, persimmon, wild cherry and paw paw in their diets. They hunted deer, bear, raccoon, rabbit, and turkey, waterfowl and fish. See What is Nodena at the Virtual Museum and the 3D  FAQ

The visualization software VUE 6 was used to create the images.

The project was been funded by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council.