March is Archeology Month in Arkansas

     It is a hot afternoon in 1541 as the Spaniards, led by Hernando DeSoto, cross through Arkansas.  They have been traveling for months, searching for gold and claiming land for the King of Spain as they travel.  They encounter some Native Americans: the Quapaw.  The Quapaw instruct them to make their way further west. 
     After two grueling years, the men are still scrabbling through brush, tall pine forests, and slogging through swamps.  Still they have found no gold.  They carry with them armor, weaponry, and the provisions of a military party.  They travel by foot and on horseback.  What items from this long-ago expedition have been recovered by modern archeologists?

     Imagine a young Cherokee boy as he passes through the Arkansas River Valley on his way to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.  It is the 1830's.  What would this boy carry with him?  What might he leave behind?

     The first European settlement west of the Mississippi was at Arkansas Post. From 1686 to 1763, the Post served as a French settlement and trading post.  The Post changed hands in the middle of the 18th Century, becoming briefly a Spanish holding and then went back to the French after the American Revolution.  Finally in 1803, when Louisiana Territory was purchased from the French, the Post became part of the United States.  In all those years, with settlers and Native Americans living and working near the Post, what kinds of artifacts would have been left behind? 

Archeologists work to solve these mysteries and many more.  Take a look at some archeology links:
Archeology State Parks
Raven's Dream (a story of Native American rock art)

    

     What will be left behind a century from now?  What "artifacts" will we leave for archeologists in the future?  Broken computer parts?  Wrecked cars?  Remnants from old shopping malls?  It's an interesting thought.  The next time you throw something away, consider it leaving evidence of your way of life.