Shell Mask

myminifactory

Found under the mandible of a burial at the Barton Ranch site, archaeologists discovered this shell mask gorget measuring 5 7/8 inches long. Northeast Arkansas has yielded a significant number of similar objects, all associated with late prehistoric/protohistoric contexts (Smith and Smith, 1989).\r\nThe Hampson Museum Collection represents one of the world's most extraordinary collections of American Indian artistic expression and a major source of data on the lives and history of late pre-Columbian peoples of the Mississippi River Valley. The museum's collections are the result of extensive excavations at the Nodena Site as well as other sites in the region by Dr James K. Hampson, along with work by others including the University of Alabama and the University of Arkansas.\r\nThe Virtual Hampson Museum was completed by CAST in 2010. This digital museum is the first of its kind to make such high resolution data available, featured in a UA Research Frontiers article in April 2010. In 2011, the museum began receiving substantial scholarly recognition. Below are a list of articles referencing the Virtual Hampson Museum.\r\nFor further reading about The Virtual Hampson Museum and to explore more models in their archive, visit this link - http://hampson.cast.uark.edu/about.htm