Hi, kids.

I'm Sherry Hawkins, the park interpreter here at Hampson Archeological Museum State Park in Wilson, Arkansas.

Here at Hampson, it is our job to protect, exhibit and research the artifacts that we have on display that were discovered by Dr. James K Hampson.

Dr. Hampson was an amateur archeologist who collected all the artifacts that we have on display at our museum.

The site was within an 80 mile radius of his particular home, and he studied all of the artifacts and collected them from that region.

So here in the museum, we have many unique items.

One of our most important pieces is our human head effigy, also referred to as a head pot.

There are 138 head pots ever found in the world, 90 of them in Arkansas.

Ours is known as a death vessel because its eyes are shut, its lips are slightly parted.

It also has an engraved, upside down fur band over its left eye.

It would have been used during burial ceremonies.

A lot of these were created to look like somebody within the community of high importance, maybe a chief or a warrior, or even the medicine person.

To my right, you will see a game that the American Indians played during their time here in this area.

The game is called Chunky.

The players with the spears actually throw their spears to where they think that the disc will land.

The other player rolls the disc and whoever gets the closest gets the point.

We think that they also used it for training because if you can hit a disc that small, then you could hit a bird, a fish, a deer.

You would bring food home to your family.

So it was also for training as well as for fun.

Here at the museum, we not only have items on display, but we also have a lab where we do research and restoration.

In the lab, we will research the dates of how old a pot is or also maybe where it was found.

Another thing we do is putting them back together and to put them back together, we use schoolhouse glue.

Let's take a look at where they might have lived.

The house that you see behind me is actually one of the house structures.

It would have been made out of river cane and mud.

The river cane would have been referred to as wattle.

The mud or clay would have been referred to as dob.

They would have put up the wattle first and connected it poles on four corners.

Then they would have covered it in the mud clay mixture on the inside and outside of the houses.

The reason they did it on both sides of the wall is because during the winter it would keep the homes warmer and during the summer it would have kept the houses cooler.

Let's take a look at some of the items that might have been in those homes.

Ceramic pots for cooking, for drinking, for carrying water, for storing stuff.

So these were some of their plain pots.

Sometimes they wanted to reflect on something that was important to them.

We also had pots that had eagle heads on them.

They have some that actually looked like bats and hawks.

These are all things that were important to their community that they used during special times of the year.

And now I'm going to show you how you can make some of this at home.

All you need to do is get your parents to go to the local craft store and pick up some air dry clay.

You will pinch off a piece of that clay.

And the first thing we're going to make is called a coil pot.

And this is what it will look like.

You will take smaller sections of your clay and roll them out into snakes.

Once you get it the thickness you want it to be, you'll start coiling it and then you gently pinch it together to where it sticks all together and there's no holes in between it.

Then what you're going to do is create another one to start building on top of the bottom of your vessel.

And then you start building and each time you go around, you gently press it onto the pieces underneath it so that it will stick and there will be no holes.

Once you get finished, you put it in a dry, warm place.

After you've let your coil pot dry for a day, you can get a stone and start smoothing at it.

Where all the coils meet together.

That way, when it's finished, it will be smooth like this vessel.

I want to thank you for joining us today.

And I invite you to come visit us at Hampson Archeological Museum State Park.

We have plenty to do.

The museum is also interactive for students and children of all ages.

Hope to see you soon.