Engraved whelk shell from Spiro Mounds depicting a falcon warrior
Spiro Mounds (34 LF 40)[3] is an Indigenous archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma. The site was built by people from the Arkansas Valley Caddoan culture.[4] that remains from an American Indian culture that was part of the major northern Caddoan Mississippian culture. The 80-acre site is located within a floodplain on the southern side of the Arkansas River. The modern town of Spiro developed approximately seven miles to the south.
Between the 9th and 15th centuries, the local Indigenous people created a religious and political center, culturally linked to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex identified by anthropologists as the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere (MIIS). Spiro was a major western outpost of Mississippian culture which dominated the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries for centuries.
In the 1930s during the Great Depression, treasure hunters bought the rights to tunnel into Craig Mound—the second-largest mound on the site—to mine it for artifacts. 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. The treasure hunters sold the artifacts they recovered to art collectors, some as far away as Europe. The artifacts included works of fragile, perishable materials: textiles and feathers that had been uniquely preserved in the conditions of the closed chamber.
Later, steps were taken to protect the site. This site has been significant for North American archaeology since the 1930s, especially due to its many preserved textiles and a wealth of shell carving. Later, some of the artifacts sold by treasure hunters were returned to regional museums and the Caddo Nation, but many artifacts from the site have never been accounted for.
Since the late 20th century, the Spiro Mounds site has been protected by the Oklahoma Historical Society and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[5]
^"OKLAHOMA - Le Flore County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
^"National Register Properties in Oklahoma". Retrieved February 28, 2009.
^Brown, James A.; Rogers, J. Daniel (Summer 1989). "Linking Spiro's artistic styles: The Copper Connection". Southeastern Archaeology. 8 (1): 1–8. JSTOR 40712893.
^Cite error: The named reference avcc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Spiro Mounds." Oklahoma Historical Society. (retrieved 30 May 2011)
SpiroMounds (34 LF 40) is an Indigenous archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma. The site was built by people from the Arkansas Valley...
This is a list of notable burial mounds in the United States built by Native Americans. Burial mounds were built by many different cultural groups over...
up spiro in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Spiro(s) may refer to: Spiro, Oklahoma, a town in the U.S. SpiroMounds, an archaeological site Spiro (band)...
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visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition Caddo Mounds State Historic Site Gahagan Mounds Site SpiroMounds Handie, Jericka. "Caddo Nation". University of...
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lived in the eastern part of the state. SpiroMounds, in what is now Spiro, Oklahoma, was a major Mississippian mound complex that flourished between AD 850...
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which features a stylized carving of a raccoon and was found at the SpiroMounds, Oklahoma, remains unknown. The fur of raccoons is used for clothing...
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ceremonial and village earthwork mounds around Lake Okeechobee similar to those of the Mississippian culture and earlier mound builders. Fort Center is in...
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maskettes, or other novel shapes. An extremely elaborate pendant from SpiroMounds is shaped as two hands connected by a common beaded bracelet. Adena cultures...
conicals likely evolved into linear mounds. Bird mounds likely came next as modifying a linear mound to make a bird mound required only the addition of a...
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on the mound seem to have been added to stop slumping of the enormous mound. Although the mounds were primarily meant as substructure mounds for buildings...
suggests that the earliest people were related to the builders of the SpiroMounds. By the 1600s, the Osage and Caddo tribes dominated the area. French...
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