The mounds are one of the most important American Indian sites in the nation. Spiro Mounds people participated in what cultural anthropologists and archaeologists call the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), a network of ceremonial centers sharing the Mississippian culture and similar spiritual beliefs, cosmology, ritual practices, and cult objects. The Spiro people probably were speakers of one of the many Caddoan languages. Most of those rare and priceless objects disintegrated before scholars could reach the site, although some were sold to collectors. He said museum curators worked closely with Native communities to ensure Spiro's story was properly interpreted. Often, the cedar tree, or the striped-center-pole, is found on engraved conch shell gorgets, with human or animal figures positioned on either side. Director: Anna Vincent, Geocache location Tunneling into the mound and breaking through the Great Mortuary's log wall, they found many human burials, together with their associated grave goods. The Spiro artifacts were found to be unmatched in modern times. in Oklahoma. Author . Spirometer prices. Containing twelve mounds and a population of several thousand, it was physically unremarkable when compared to many other North American Mississippian sites. This artifact was recovered from The Mississippian people moved and traded between towns and regions by walking or using canoes. Robert E. Bell took this picture Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center is. camera bag (See Photograph 12). It was created as a circle of sacred cedar posts sunk in the ground and angled together at the top similarly to a tipi. Corn (maize) was the most harvested plant, but others, such as sunflowers, squash, beans, hickory nuts, and acorns were also utilized. Chunkey was a game played in the Mississippian period, but also in historic times by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and other tribes throughout the Eastern Woodlands. This piece is now at the Ohio Following this, it was once again abandoned for nearly 100 years. An archaeological find unmatched in modern times. Spiro, located on the Arkansas River, sat at a natural passage between the east and west, and grew as a trade centre. The dead past has surely buried its dead within the mound." artifact collector J.G. It is 268 pages and has 152 black-and-white plates of photographs and drawings of artifacts recovered from Spiro Mound. "Nothing like this had ever been discovered anywhere else in North America," said Eric Singleton, curator of ethnology at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. "Resting Warrior", side view, effigy pipe of Missouri flint clay, Effigy pipe of figure smoking from a frog effigy pipe, Missouri flint clay, Effigy pipe of a man smoking a pipe, Missouri flint clay, 2 jasper and 1 Mill Creek chert ceremonial bifaces (from southern Illinois), Engraved whelk shell cup with raptor heads. They shared horticulture, elaborate ceremonies, mound building, and an iconographic writing system with more than sixty different tribes. Wehrle. "high-status" artifacts per burial from selected spiro phase (ad 1250-1450) sites 10 2.1. craig Mound prior to excavation 14 2.2. north cone of the craig Mound during excavation by the wPa 16 4.1. ceramic attributes and key 28 4.2. ceramic vessel profiles 31 4.3. whole and partial . In Artifacts from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma, April Sievert (2011:100) also notes the small tool marks lining the inside of hollow boatstones. An item that was dropped off at a western New York Goodwill site turns out to be an ancient artifact from eastern Oklahoma that . on Sundays from noon to 5. These included mounds surrounding a large, planned and leveled central plaza, where important religious rituals, the politically and culturally significant game of chunkey, and other important community activities were carried out. Romania: Castles, Ruins, and Medieval Villages, Iceland in Summer: Journey Through a Fabled Land, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Mokele-Mbembe, Accidental Discoveries: A Celebration of Historical Mistakes, Antiques and Their Afterlives: Stories from the Collection of Ryan and Regina Cohn, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Satanists, Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Writing With Anca Szilgyi, Gourds Gone Wild: Growing and Crafting Gourds With Gourdlandia, Playing Ancient Games: History & Mythology With John Bucher, Secrets of Tarot Reading: History & Practice With T. Susan Chang, Archaeological Site inside Monastiraki Metro Station. The vast majority of Mississippian mounds in other places are no more than 3 m (10 ft) high. Inside were elaborate special burials and jumbled human bones accompanied by . (Highway 9 is the Oklahoma extension of. Where Elvis Presley received his first Army buzz cut. Schools and large groups can arrange for guided tours of the site by contacting the staff by phone or email at least a week ahead of time. Together it included about 3 million people from more than 60 . Bronze statue marks the spinach capital of the world. 918-962-2062 Repousse male profile in copper with two earspools. . Visitors can explore nearly two miles of interpreted trails, including a one-half mile nature trail. This developing interest and enthusiasm in the Spiro site has been stimulated in various ways; by examination of artifacts in private collections or in museums, by an increasing reference to Spiro materials in the literature, and through recognition of Spiro as a grandiose example of the so-called "Southern Cult" complex. Spiro Mounds (34 LF 40)[3] is an archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma that remains from an indigenous Indian culture that was part of the major northern Caddoan Mississippian culture. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center The It has by far the largest mound of any Mississippian site and held a population of between 10,000-15,000 at its heyday. Objects created in this style are found at other large ceremonial centers across the eastern half of North Americaincluding Moundville in Alabama, Etowah in Georgia, and Spiro Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Vol. Below it are shown two stone earspools with copper coverings. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park submitted by Flickr Woolaroc Spiro Mounds artifacts Spiro mound artifacts on display at Woolaroc Museum, near Bartlesville. This preserved the mounds until the Great Depression, when a group of diggers who called themselves the Picola Mining Company acquired the site and tore through the ancient structure, destroying the delicate feather capes and baskets that had survived within the mound-cavities for hundreds of years. These sacred Mesoamerican ruins feature peculiar petroglyphs hidden in the stones. After AD 1450, the site and region underwent considerable cultural and environmental changes. The site is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 to 5 and on Sundays from noon to 5. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Bell collection at Marion, Ohio, until July 30, 1956, when Earl Nearly a century later, the incident remains the worst looting of an archaeological site in US history. By 1450, the mound city of Spiro was abandoned (Credit: alantobey/Getty Images). B. Bison bones found at the Burnham site . The hope was that the ceremonial burying of sacred property would return the city to its previous state, bringing back the steady rains and long growing seasons that had let Spiro flourish. Oklahoma's Spiro Mounds is one of America's most important ancient cultural and religious centers. All rights reserved. Rogers, J. Daniel "Chronology and the Demise of Chiefdoms: Eastern Oklahoma in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. It also was not palisaded, as were the ceremonial centers of Cahokia, Moundville, and Etowah. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center features an annual Family Kite Flite Day on the third Saturday of March, Archaeology Day, and Birthday Bash in May, and temporary exhibits sponsored by the Spiro Mounds Development Association. It is frequently represented as a tree (including the Tree of Life), since trees pass through the surface of the earth and connect the subsurface and the sky. It is a physiological test that measures how an individual inhales or exhales volume of air as a function of time. From a bend in the Arkansas River, the Spiro people led Mississippian culture over nearly two-thirds of what is now the United States. [21][22] The center features various exhibits and trails, and it offers tours,[21] including a virtual tour.[23]. base. These maces are pictured in Hamilton (1952), Plate 43, and six of the swords from the cache, not any of the examples shown . Home to rich cultural resources, the Spiro Mounds were created and used by Caddoan speaking Indians between 850 and 1450 AD. A cavity created within the mound, approximately 10 feet (3.0m) high and 15 feet (4.6m) wide, allowed for almost perfect preservation of fragile artifacts made of wood, conch shell, and copper. An artifact displayed a the Spiro Mounds exhibit. Spiro was home to a ceremonial centre for a loosely aligned confederation of mound-building nations called the Mississippian Culture. Fresh off the press, the newest (2020) printing of the classic 1952 volume dedicated to Spiro Mounds. "You compare it to art from any culture at any time in the past, and you have to admit it's a masterwork.". Blade and mace cache: Part 1. This break can be identified by a small shadow in the middle of . Etowah is unique because it saw repeated instances of abandonment and repopulation. This area of eastern Oklahoma was the seat of ancient Mississippian culture, and the Spiro Mounds grew from a small farming village to a vital cultural center in . Archaeologists have shown that Spiro had a large resident population until about 1250. Here, atop Brown Mound and the other mounds, the inhabitants of the town carried out complex rituals, centered especially on the deaths and burials of Spiro's powerful rulers. Excavations at house Mound 5 at the spiro site 5 1.4. Located east of Spiro on Hwy 271 and four miles north on Spiro Mounds Road. Spiro Mound. This profile was part of a cache that included The site is closed for state holidays. Bell arranged the transaction and, for $100, the frame was 18154 First Street . These chiefs were often considered godlike by their people, sometimes referred to as the Sun. Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian Worldseeks to answer these questions and more in the first major museum exhibition on the Spiro Mounds of southeast Oklahoma. It is unknown why it was abandoned. Tribute points are the most artistically designed and skillfully made point type recovered from Craig mound. The longest blade in this THE SPIRO MOUNDS DIG. Learn how a Little Ice Age may have led to the sites ultimate abandonment and what lessons may be learned as we face our own ecological changes today. pictured in Figure 23. spiromound-0023- Figure 23: The mounds barely rate a mention in textbooks, he said, while noting that some years, nearly half his students have Native American heritage. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. ---1981, Barbara Page, "Spiro Mound Artifacts Reveal 12th Century Culture," The Gilcrease Magazine Of American History And Art, p. 7- 8. The site remained unoccupied from AD 1600 until 1832. It is located approximately 1,500 feet (460m) southeast of the plaza. Spiro Mound Village pamphlet . Henry Hamilton traced the design decorations on the Spiro Mound artifacts by placing tracing paper on top of the artifact. At the height of the Great Depression, Indian relic and curio dealers and artifact collectors had caught wind of the artifacts at the heart of the Spiro Mounds area of LeFlore County, north of Poteau. To save itself, Spiro's priests made a desperate attempt to "restart the universe". Style analysis of the objects found at Spiro reveals that many objects were imported from different regions across the southeastern United States and probably arrived at the site via a system of interregional exchange. It is clear that this is not simulating a real Spiro was a major western outpost of Mississippian culture, which dominated the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries for centuries. [citation needed], Archaeologists found that one of the conch shell cups from Craig Mound had a black residue in the bottom. The Spiro Mound, reportedly by Bill Heydon Vandagriff, and B. The residents drifted off, their descendants joining today's Caddo Nation and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, whose territories once included parts of the US states of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. It is a Spiro Mound site that has a large amount of burial art and artifacts. The exhibit just finished its run at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and moves to the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama in October 2021, before making its final stop the following March at the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. The majority of the Spiro artifacts are housed at the Gilcrease Museum, but Special Collections has a few artifacts, and . (Permission Oklahoma Historical Society) . These differences in food cultivation and mound construction often leave scholars defining this region, and site, as Caddoan and not specifically Mississippian. First identified in 1914 by Joseph Thoburn, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, the mounds were part of the Choctaw Nation land allotment. A historian is on site to answer questions and lead tours. See. It is in present-day Georgia and sits on the banks of the Etowah River in Bartow County, just south of Cartersville. Download Free PDF View PDF. Today, the Spiro Mounds site and artifacts are among Oklahoma's richest cultural resources. Edited by Eric D. Singleton and F. Kent Reilly III. Known as Monks Mound, it measures one hundred feet high and took nearly 150 years to complete. Like the other eastern mounds, it was palisaded. "The burial items carry the spirits of our ancestors with them." Each phase is identified by distinct ceramic types and style of architecture. figure in the cutout can be seen wearing such an earspool. It would have been noisy with kids and animals," he said. The most notable mound site in this area is called Kincaid. Spiro Mounds had been unearthed by a group of local men who called themselves the Pocola Mining Company. archaeologists can begin to determine what life was like for the inhabitants of the Spiro Mound site. These settlements rose to prominence beginning in the 800s during a period of favourable weather patterns that allowed them to create stable, agriculture-based societies, said Dennis Peterson, an archaeologist and manager of the Spiro site. Florida plates Copper Solar Ogee Deity plate found at Lake Jackson Mounds, Florida . Paired groups of mounds along the plazas edge were associated with specific clans, arranged according to social power and prestige. An archaeological find unmatched in modern times. But the treasure soon disappeared. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Copper (1974), Figure 88. Offer subject to change without notice. Townsend collection in Mr. Onkens Legends of Prehistoric The largest, Mound C, served as the mortuary facility for Etowahs elite and included objects and iconographic imagery matching other regional stylesnamely Braden. The modern town of Spiro developed approximately seven miles to the south. Same culture, different area though. which was exposed to major damage due to the looting of its artifacts. Monkeys inhabit the lush forest surrounding ancient Mayan ruins once considered sacred. Early looting of the site led to new laws, making Oklahoma one the first states to preserve and scientifically research archaeological sites. Funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), archaeologists from the University of Oklahoma excavated parts of the site between 1936 and 1941. It appears the site had transformed from a large population center to a necropolisa regional repository for the deceased. What made it unique were the thousands of ceremonial objects found in an earthen Hollow Chambersomething not seen anywhere else in North America. All rights reserved. The people of Spiro people relied on a wide variety of animals for meat, including deer, elk, turkey, fish, turtles, geese, ducks, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, and other small mammals. This was one of the most amazing archaeological finds of the 20th century and it made news around the world in 1933. Pauketat, Timothy R. and Thomas E. Emerson (eds.). Ex-Ken Partain, Lonnie Hartline, Tommy Bryden . Each Mississippian center produced its own distinctive art, which in many instances was exchanged with other centers. The Oklahoma Historical Society established the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in 1978 that continues to operate. Fri, Feb 19, 2021. Tribute Points Frame. This The mounds were arranged around large, constructed flat plazas believed to be used for ceremonial community gathering and ritual games. Peterson, the centre's manager and sole employee, said visitors must use their imagination. During the 1930s commercial, and later academic, excavations revealed one of the greatest collections of artistic and utilitarian prehistoric American Indian artifacts in the United States. Recent excavations have revealed more cultural diversity than scholars had expected within that region. Between the 9th and 15th centuries, the local people created a powerful religious and political center, culturally . The Great Serpent is portrayed in Mississippian art with a serpent's body, but also with wings or horns. ", "Notice of Inventory Completion: Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Cherry of Fort Wayne, Indiana from those who were digging . Spiro's location on the Arkansas River, one of the principal tributaries of the Mississippi River, gave the Spiro traders access to the Mississippian heartland. Director, Ohio State Museum. Artifacts from Spiro Mounds have been documented in at least 65 facilities around . When the men refused, the scholar convinced the state legislature to pass one of the nation's first antiquities acts to protect archaeological sites in 1935. In historic tribes, such objects have traditionally been created by women. The fact that so many cities and towns were being abandoned gives rise to the conclusion that a common event was impacting every population group. ", "Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Caddoan Languages and Peoples", This little-known Native American society was once as powerful as the Aztecs and Incas, Spiro Mounds on Oklahoma Historical Society, Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center on TravelOK.com, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, "Towns and Temples of the Mississippian Culture" (animation video), Spiro Mounds Site, 18154 First Street, Spiro, Le Flore, OK, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, National Register of Historic Places listings in LeFlore County, Oklahoma, List of National Historic Landmarks in Oklahoma, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spiro_Mounds&oldid=1124562673, Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma, Protected areas of Le Flore County, Oklahoma, Historic American Landscapes Survey in Oklahoma, National Register of Historic Places in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. al. [4] As in other Mississippian-culture towns, the people built a number of large, complex earthworks. A treasure lost to time: Looters destroyed America's largest collection of Native American relics. [20] Wichita and Kitsai are both extinct. The mound center declined and was eventually abandoned by AD 1450, although the city . Without concern for scientific research, they exposed a hollow burial chamber inside the mound, a unique feature containing some of the most extraordinary pre-Columbian artifacts ever found in the United States. Instead, they harvested chenopod (quinoa), maygrass, barley, and knotweed. Brown Mound, the largest platform mound, is located on the eastern side of the plaza. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. The mining company was finally shut down in 1935, and in 1936 the University of Oklahoma started a scientific excavation that lasted until 1941. During this time, the site saw the enlargement of previously created mounds as well as many newly-constructed ones. Scholars still classify the Mississippian sites found in the entire Caddo area, including Spiro Mounds, as "Caddoan Mississippian".[18]. north of Oklahoma Highway 9 in Spiro. Together it included about 3 million people from more than 60 tribes, speaking 30 different languages. The Spiro Mound excavation in Oklahoma uncovered a "tall man in full armor.with a pot of thousands of pearls and other artifacts" (Nexus New Times Vol 2, Number 12). At the time of de Soto's conquest, the Caddoan peoples occupied a large territory. The Spiro Mounds site is world renowned for the incredible amount of art and artifacts dug from the Craig Mound, the site's only burial mound. They were dug out of mound #72 at Cahokia mounds in Illinois. Our first view of the mounds. Read about our approach to external linking. The conch shells were fashioned into gorgets and drinking cups engraved with intricate designs representing costumed humans, real and mythical animals, and geometric motifs, all of which had profound symbolic significance. Scholars have determined that Battle Mound, lying along the Great Bend of the Red River in southwest Arkansas, was a larger site than Spiro. An earspool is a circular object that adorns extended ear holes, much like a modern day earring, and is decorated with different designs. The artefacts they discovered were immediately sold around the globe. Archeological studies have revealed that Mississippian culture extended from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, along the Ohio River, and into both the lowland and mountain areas of the Southeast. The LeFlore County Museum and other artifact sites While reaching firm conclusions about the meanings of works of art made centuries ago by people of an extinct culture is difficult, they have made some compelling interpretations by comparing Mississippian artistic imagery with the myths, religious rituals, art, and iconography of historic Native American groups. Whos Who in Indian Relics, #5 (1980), where it is said; Even so, the men kept digging illegally, and in August 1935 with three months left on their lease, they broke into the burial chamber and proceeded to plunder it. Spiro's bounty is now spread among more than 65 museums across the US, Europe and Asia, and researchers are still discovering additional galleries and people possessing its riches. over the head. piece is shown in Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians on Between 1933 and 1935, Craig Mound was excavated by a commercial enterprise that had bought the rights from local landowners to excavate and to keep or sell the artifacts they recovered. The city was palisaded (walled) and had a large grand plaza that was the equivalent of thirty-five football fields. These beliefs dictated all ritual activities and are depicted symbolically on various ceramics, stone statues, pipes, engraved shell gorgets, and copper plates, symbols seen throughout the exhibition on nearly every object. de Soto's forces also encountered numerous Caddo villages. Participants drank a tea made from the Yaupon Holly from conch shell cups. Once the seat of power during the Mississippian period (circa 800-1500 AD), the Spiro people ruled over a confederation of more than 60 North American tribes, influencing trade, religion and the political structure of the Southwest United States. A.T. Wehrle from Lear Howell.
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