Parkin Archeological State Park, also known as Parkin Indian Mound, is an archeological site and state park in Parkin, Cross County, Arkansas. Around 1350–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed at the site, at the confluence of the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers. Artifacts from this site are on display at the site museum. The Parkin site is the type site for the Parkin phase, an expression of the Mississippian culture from the Late Mississippian period. Many archeologists believe it to be part of the province of Casqui, documented as visited by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542. Archeological artifacts from the village of the Parkin people are dated to 1400–1650 CE.

The Parkin site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 for its significance as a type site of the Parkin phase.[2][3] In 1966, the Parkin Indian Mound was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[1] Parkin Archeological State Park is located at 60 Arkansas Highway 184 North, Parkin, Arkansas.

Culture of the Parkin phase

The Parkin site is the type site for an important Late Mississippian cultural component, the Parkin phase, which dates from about 1400–1700 CE. The Parkin phase was a collection of villages along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers. This culture is contemporary with the Caborn-Welborn culture and Menard, Tipton, Walls and the Nodena phases.[4] It has been determined that the site was continuously occupied for at least 500 years.

In the early 1540s, the Spanish Hernando de Soto expedition is believed to have visited several sites in the Parkin phase, which is usually identified as the province of Casqui,[5] with the Nodena phase being identified as the province of Pacaha.

The province was named by the De Soto Expedition for the chieftain Casqui, who ruled the tribe from its primary village. The De Soto chroniclers indicate that political provinces were the major political institutions of this area; they were characterized by a paramount chief living in a paramount town, with satellite vassal towns surrounding it. The Parkin phase is a series of twenty-one villages of varying sizes along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers, most of them roughly 2.5 miles (4 km) apart from each other. These sites include the Rose Mound, Glover, Neeleys Ferry, and Barton Ranch.[6]

Settlement pattern

The distribution of Parkin phase sites along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers, the area the Spanish called the province of Casqui.
Village typeKnown sitesSite sizeFeatures
Paramount village Parkin site 17 acres (6.9 ha) Substructure mounds,
palisade and moat
Important villages Barton Ranch(3CT18)
Glover
Neeley's Ferry(3CS24)
Rose Mound(3CS27)		 6.7 to 9.1 acres (2.7–3.7 ha)
Intermediate villages 9 sites known 3.7 to 5.9 acres (1.5–2.4 ha) Palisade and moat,
some mounds
Smaller villages 5 sites known 0.7 to 2.0 acres (0.3–0.8 ha)
Very small villages Ritter, Togo < 0.7 acres (0.3 ha) Palisade,
no mounds, no moat

During the preceding periods, homesteads and small villages had developed throughout the area, but by this time endemic warfare had forced the populations to consolidate into the palisaded villages. They would leave their villages during the day to farm their fields, collect wood, and hunt, but at night return to the safety of their well-defended villages. The people of the Parkin phase were relatively isolated and protected from people of other phases to their east and southeast by swamps, which the Spanish chroniclers described as some of the worst they had crossed. The swamps acted as buffer zones between the competing, hostile phases.

As time went on, the people of the Parkin phase developed a material culture that increasingly diverged from that of the surrounding phases. Among other indicators, this distinction was characterized by changes in pottery designs and mortuary practices. The cultural changes show that the peoples of the Parkin phase were becoming isolated from their neighbors not only culturally but also physically.[7] Motifs on artifacts found at the Parkin phase sites show that the people were part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, an extensive religious and trade network that brought Mill Creek chert, whelk shells, and other exotic goods to the Parkin phase sites.

Agriculture and food

Maize was the main foodstuff grown by the peoples of Parkin

The people of Parkin were intensely involved in maize agriculture, as well as cultivating other food crops originating in the Americas, such as beans, gourds, squash, and sunflowers. Women managed most of the cultivation and processing, including developing varieties of maize and vegetables. After the harvest, maize was stored in large above ground cribs for consumption during the remainder of the year. The women also gathered wild foodstuffs such as pecans and persimmons.[6]

The De Soto chroniclers described the area as being intensely cultivated, and as the most populous they had seen in La Florida. They said there were groves of wild fruit and nut-bearing trees, implying that the Parkin phase peoples must have chosen to retain them while clearing other trees for the cultivation of maize and their other crops.[4] The men hunted such game as whitetail deer, squirrel, rabbit, turkey, and mallard, as well as fishing for alligator gar, catfish, drum, turtles and mussels. The two rivers and the moat must have been a very productive source of fish, as the De Soto chroniclers often mentioned receiving "gifts of fish" from the residents of Casqui.

Language

The people of Parkin were probably Tunican or Siouan speaking. It is known that the Tunica were in the area at the time of the de Soto Entrada. The related group of phases present in the region may have all been Tunica peoples, with Caddoan speakers to their west and south. By the time of later European contact in the 1670s and the beginning of the historic period, the area was occupied by the Quapaw, who spoke a Dhegiha Siouan language. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to connect pottery styles and words from the de Soto narratives with the Quapaw.[8]

Parkin site 1350–1650 CE

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Parkin Indian Mound". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on April 28, 2002.
  3. ↑ Mark R. Barnes (November 25, 1997). "Parkin Indian Mound" (PDF). National Historic Landmark Nomination. National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2009.
  4. 1 2 Hudson, Charles M. (1997). Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando De Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1888-4.
  5. ↑ Dan Morse (1973). Nodena-An account of 90 years of archaeological investigation in southeast Mississippi County, Arkansas. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series. ISBN 1-56349-057-9.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Phyllis Morse (1981). Parkin. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series. OCLC 7540091.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Morse, Phyllis A. (1990). "The Parkin Site and the Parkin Phase". In David H. Dye; Sheryl Ann Cox (eds.). Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0455-X.
  8. ↑ Hoffman, Michael P. (1990). "The Terminal Mississippian Period in the Arkansas River Valley and Quapaw Ethnogenesis". In David H. Dye and Cheryl Ann Cox (ed.). Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0455-X.
  9. ↑ "A narrative of de Soto's Expedition based on the diary of Rodrigo Ranjel". Archived from the original on March 17, 2009. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  10. ↑ Hudson, Charles M. (1976). The Southeastern Indians.
  11. ↑ "Relation of the Conquest of Florida presented by Luys Hernandez de Biema". Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  12. ↑ "The Parkin site:Hernando De Soto in Cross County, Arkansas" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  13. ↑ "Parkin Archeological State Park-Encyclopedia of Arkansas". Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Arkansas Archaeologists Find the Remains of de Soto's Cross?". The Archaeological Conservancy. April 21, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkin_Archeological_State_Park