Each time you visit an Arkansas park, you are entering a landscape with many fascinating aspects - lush plant life, diverse wild animal populations, conservation efforts, recreational opportunities, generations of history, thousands of years of prehistory, and even more ancient geology and topography. With an archaeological eye, you can learn to recognize many traces of the people and cultures that preceded you in these landscapes. Material evidence of the past ranges from the ashes of yesterday’s campfires, through CCC cabins and other historic structures, to ancient prehistoric sites.
Archaeologists categorize the surviving material remains of human activities into a number of key categories. Beyond the preserved historic structures which are still in use, on your visit to a park you may encounter archaeological artifacts, ecofacts, features, and sites.
Artifacts are the most well-known form of archaeological evidence. Artifacts are small, portable objects that people made and used in daily life and ritual. They include things like pottery, stone tools, or jewelry. Artifacts dating to the CCC period found and studied by archaeologists have included kitchen wares, nails, and glass shards left behind by camp residents after the work projects concluded.
Ecofacts are natural materials that were not shaped into tools or art but that tell us about past diets, craft production, or how people altered the environments they lived in. Preserved plant remains such as wood charcoal or burned seeds are ecofacts. Other common archaeological ecofacts include animal bones leftover from long-forgotten meals, such as those eaten by prehistoric Native American families or the young men living and working at CCC camps.
Archaeologists define features as remnants of the human past that are immovable or composed of many connected elements. One example of a feature is this chimney from Devils Den which still stands after the rest of the structure has deteriorated. Rock art is another example of a type of archaeological feature. Rock House Cave at Petit Jean State Park is a natural rock shelter where you can see the amazing naturalistic rock art of plants and animals created by Native Americans who lived in the area from as long as 8,000 years ago.
A single artifact or feature provides a small window into intimate moments from people’s lives and work, but they are only part of how archaeologists piece together the puzzle of the past. The locations where concentrations of artifacts, features, structures, and ecofacts occur are called archaeological sites. It is the relationship between all of these types of evidence in their stratigraphic and landscape contest that tells us rich stories and forgotten details of past lives. For example, a knife alone tells us little more than that someone could have cut something. The same knife found and recorded in archaeological context could tell us stories of cooking practices and recipes, or construction practices, or even of conflict. For more information about the archeological research that has been done at the sites of former CCC camps in Arkansas, see the Historical Archeology of the Arkansas CCC Camps and the Camp Halsey Archaeological and Historical Research site.
Arkansas parks preserve our state’s natural and cultural heritage for all of us and for generations to come. When you encounter archaeological ruins or artifacts feel free to observe, consider, photograph, and discuss them, but please leave artifacts where you find them and do not disturb or alter archaeological features. If you think that you have found something significant that hasn’t been recorded before, note its location and notify a park authority or the Arkansas Archeological Survey.
Header Image: CCC Artifacts on Display in the Visitor’s Center, Mt. Nebo State Park, 2019. Photograph by Jamie Middleton.
About the Author:
Dr. Krista Lewis is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is an archaeologist with experience in prehistoric and historic archaeology in Arabia, Central America, and the southern United States. Her research interests include human-environment interactions, ancient foodways, and public archaeology.