Near Wilson in eastern Arkansas, the Nodena site was a palisaded Native town occupied roughly between 1400 and 1650 CE on a former bend of the Mississippi River. Covering about 15 acres, it was laid out with notable order, with houses and mounds aligned to a common axis, substantial platform mounds, plazas, and a probable chunkey ground. Defensive walls with bastions and archer slots point to sustained regional conflict. Many archaeologists identify it with Pacaha, visited by Hernando de Soto’s expedition in 1542. Nodena also gave its name to an important Late Mississippian cultural phase and is especially noted for pottery, burials, and evidence of cranial deformation.