Spiro is one of the key sites known for the Mississippian Period (ad 900-1500) of the eastern United States. Home to rich cultural resources, the Spiro Mounds were created and used by Caddoan speaking Indians between 850 and 1450 AD. In the 1930s during the Great Depression, treasure hunters bought the rights to tunnel into Craig Moundthe second-largest mound on the siteto mine it for artifacts. Spiro and the Arkansas Basin. These maces are pictured in Hamilton (1952), Plate 43, and Excellent condition. Native American Art, Ritual, and Cosmic Renewal. These are the characteristics of an object that allow it to be grouped with similar works. However, it is unquestionable that Spiro shared the same iconography and belief system as the other Mississippian Ceremonial Centers. In this price range, the models are very basic and have an indicator that shows you your peak flow. The mound center declined and was eventually abandoned by AD 1450, although the city . [10] Using these valued materials, Mississippian artists created exquisite works of art reflecting their cultural identity and their complex spiritual beliefs. The site known as Spiro Mounds was a major location of the Caddoan Mississippian culture in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Grass covers a mound built by an ancient Native American civilization at the Spiro Mounds archaeological site . Mid-range: From $20 to $40, you can find lower-end digital models and incentive spirometers. Spiro Mounds (34 LF 40) is major Northern Caddoan Mississippian archaeological site located in Eastern Oklahoma. Leflore Co, OK. Very well made and in Very good condition. During this period, known as the Mississippian period, Spiro leaders were developing political, religious, and economic ties with people from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico and from the coast of Virginia to the Great Lakes. 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. Human head effigy plate from 1200-1450 AD found at the Spiro site in Oklahoma (Credit: Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection), Many of the pieces are "mind-blowing", said Singleton, the exhibit curator. Manuela Beltrn Is a Colombian Hero. Trip Advisor on Sundays from noon to 5. It is clear that this is not simulating a real It has been depicted with a beaked face on unearthed artifacts from Cahokia to Georgia. The following articles are featured: An Interpretation of the Place of Spiro in Southeastern Archaeology by James B. Griffin. Stone tools found at the Cooperton site were more advanced than expected. This monograph documents and describes more than 20,000 artifacts from Spiros Craig Mound held at the Smithsonian Institution. purposefully blew up the central chamber of the mound for unknown reasons. The cone-shaped chamber was covered with layers of earth to create the mound, preventing collapse. Rogers, J. Daniel "Chronology and the Demise of Chiefdoms: Eastern Oklahoma in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Spiro's treasures include engraved conch shells from the Florida Keys, copper breastplates from the Great Lakes and beads from the Gulf of California. Participants drank a tea made from the Yaupon Holly from conch shell cups. On the long list of Oklahoma's historical gems, the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in Spiro has earned its place near the top. It was rebuilt in AD 1250. Since the late twentieth century, the Spiro Mounds site has been protected by the Oklahoma Historical Society and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4]. Historical parallels suggest that Moundville was originally built as a sociograman architectural depiction of a social order based on ranked clans. This year, 175 pieces were reunited in a travelling exhibition that set attendance records in Oklahoma City, and is drawing new attention to Spiro Mounds, one of the most important and least understood sites in pre-contact North America. The most notable mound site in this area is called Kincaid. The Great Serpent is portrayed in Mississippian art with a serpent's body, but also with wings or horns. Blade and mace cache: Part 1. While Choctaw and Choctaw Freedmen cleared the mound site for farming late in the 1800s, they did not allow any major disturbance of the site until the Great Depression. The area was largely empty from 1600 to 1832, when Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman cleared the site for farming. Funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), archaeologists from the University of Oklahoma excavated parts of the site between 1936 and 1941. Cahokia was also the likely epicenter of an artistic tradition referred to as Braden. This artifact was recovered from Spiro, OK 74959 Witnesses say the air hissed as it escaped from a burial chamber that had been sealed for 500 years. In June, he brought a dozen summer school students 30 miles from their home in Stigler, Oklahoma, to tour the archaeological site. The spiritual beings of the Under World were thought to be in constant opposition to those in the Upper World. Spiro and other Mississippian towns clearly looked to the great city of Cahokia, in what now is southern Illinois, as a cultural model to be emulated. In return, it received valuable goods from those other centers. The weather was warm but slightly overcast and threatening rain. 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. The majority of the Spiro artifacts are housed at the Gilcrease Museum, but Special Collections has a few artifacts, and . . Embossed Copper Plate - Identified as a peregrine falcon, the bird figure has a distinctive "weeping eye" motif that appears in many falcon depictions on religious paraphernalia associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex - Craig Mound, Spiro Mound Complex - Eastern Oklahoma. An artifact displayed a the Spiro Mounds exhibit. Later, archaeologists recognized that the ritual artifacts at Spiro were similar to comparable objects excavated at other powerful Mississippian towns that also participated in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. 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. A. arrowpoints. By 1450, the mound city of Spiro was abandoned (Credit: alantobey/Getty Images). These But around 1250, the rains became less predictable during a period known as the Little Ice Age. "These pieces are sacred," he said. "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 . Artifacts from across the country have been found at Spiro Mounds, including copper from the Great Lakes, shell beads from the Gulf of California, and a conch shell from the Gulf of Mexico . "I always heard a little bit about it, but we never really paid attention," said Wesley Cloud, a school track coach who grew up in the nearby town of Spiro, which gives the site its name. Little excavation has been conducted there to date. I thought at first they were Spiro Mound artifacts. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Skeletons were tossed carelessly to the side, broken fragments of conch shells piled up like snow, and cedar poles used to build the chamber and carry the dead were burned as firewood. The archeological ruins of the ancient fortified city of the mysterious Teotenanca civilization. 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. See. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Where Elvis Presley received his first Army buzz cut. 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. Paired groups of mounds along the plazas edge were associated with specific clans, arranged according to social power and prestige. It is the site of the first human skeleton in Oklahoma. At the time of de Soto's conquest, the Caddoan peoples occupied a large territory. Artifacts found during this period reflect a major shift and resemble those typical of groups living on the Plains, such as the Wichita. the leaders at Spiro Mounds thrived. Bell collection at Marion, Ohio, until July 30, 1956, when Earl included in the Hamilton picture. What made it unique were the thousands of ceremonial objects found in an earthen Hollow Chambersomething not seen anywhere else in North America. The New York Times trumpeted the significance of the relics, inaccurately noting that "each item taken from the mound is catalogued and photographed and careful records are being kept.". Artifacts from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma Javier Urcid April Sievert J. Daniel Rogers 2011, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 49, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, DC. It tells of a people desperately trying to adapt to a changing climate that would ultimately destroy their society. The mounds are one of the most important American Indian sites in the nation. An archaeological find unmatched in modern times. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. the local S.S. Kresges 5 & 10 store in Bells Today the site is owned and operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society. [citation needed], Archaeologists found that one of the conch shell cups from Craig Mound had a black residue in the bottom. feather but that it is intended to show a sheet copper plume hair D. It was the only burial mound created by the Norman mound builders. The treasure hunters sold the artifacts they recovered to art collectors, some as far away as Europe. Ohio and later donated to the Ohio Historical Society. It included what now is eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana. 2 11/16" Tablet. "The Spiros were family with us," said Chase Earles, a Caddo artist from Ada, Oklahoma, whose contemporary pottery and historical illustrations are included in the new exhibit. The story of the long-forgotten Spiro settlement seems particularly timely. $170. 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. middle of the blade, about one-fourth of the way up from the It is a The town was the headquarters of a regional chiefdom, whose powerful leaders directed the building of eleven platform mounds and one burial mound in an 80-acre (0.32km2) area on the south bank of the Arkansas River. The Kansas City Star heralded the discovery of a "'King Tut' Tomb of the Arkansas Valley.". 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. [4] As in other Mississippian-culture towns, the people built a number of large, complex earthworks. These differences in food cultivation and mound construction often leave scholars defining this region, and site, as Caddoan and not specifically Mississippian. Townsend collection in Mr. Onkens Legends of Prehistoric Cahokia's center called Monk's Mound covers an area of five hectares (12 acres) at its base and stands over 30 meters (~100 feet) tall. Like many other cultures in the world, the Mississippians had a ranked society, which included commoners, warriors, ritual elite, and chiefs. Data and artifact outlines were provided by Ohio archaeologist Jonathan "Jeb" Bowen, Ph.D. New Petroglyph Titles . The Craig Moundthe second-largest one and the only burial mound at Spirohoused the remains of important leaders along with clothing, fur, baskets, and other items to help ease their . 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. No purchase necessary. But the drought cycle continued, and by 1450, the mound city was abandoned. spot of only 3/8 inch. It was item # 103 in the Harry T. "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. N35 degrees, 18.696 minutes, W94 degrees, 34.164 minutes. The story of the m. Offer subject to change without notice. Where are mounds located? This photograph shows ten of the Between the 9th and 15th centuries, the local people created a powerful religious and political center, culturally . fathers collection. First identified in 1914 by Joseph Thoburn, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, the mounds were part of the Choctaw Nation land allotment. six of the swords from the cache, not any of the examples shown The economic basis for most of the Mississippian centers was the harvesting of flora (plants) and fauna (animals). Located about 400 miles northeast of Spiro near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, Cahokia was the largest and most impressive of all the Mississippian towns. The Spiro Mounds are located within the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center complex in Fort Coffee, Oklahoma. The Spiro people did not rely on maize as their primary cultivated crop like the inhabitants of the other ceremonial centers. [4] The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is preserved as Oklahoma's only Archeological State Park and only pre-contact Native American site open to the public. From AD 900 to 1300, the leaders at Spiro Mounds thrived. In historic tribes, such objects have traditionally been created by women. Archaeologists have identified four distinct styles: the Braden Style characteristic of artifacts brought from Cahokia and the Craig A, B, and C styles that are local derivatives of the Braden Style.[11][12]. The cities began to crumble. Archaeological research has shown that Mississippian settlements such as Cahokia and Spiro took part in a vast trading network that covered the eastern half of what is now the U.S. and parts of what is now the western U.S. as well. The Human Effigy head was purchased by Dr. C.P. Six out of this group of bladesare shown in eight copper feather pieces. It was created as a circle of sacred cedar posts sunk in the ground and angled together at the top similarly to a tipi. The conditions in this hollow space were so favorable that objects made of perishable materials such as basketry, woven fabric of plant and animal fibers, lace, fur, and feathers were preserved inside it. The exhibition also showcases contemporary Indigenous art pieces that explore the ideas of origin and connect the art and artistry of the Spiro people to their modern descendants. Corn, or maize, was the dominant crop, but other plants, whether grown or gathered, such as beans, squash, sump weed, acorns, and sunflowers, played an important role. The longest blade in this When Mound 3 at the site was excavated it yielded fourteen copper plates, deposited in the . page 142, plate 100 (catalog number 95). This monograph presents the historical context and detailed descriptions of a remarkable collection of more than 20,000 artifacts from the Craig Mound at the Spiro site in eastern Oklahoma. It is a physiological test that measures how an individual inhales or exhales volume of air as a function of time. in April 1935. These were purchased In the worlds of art and archaeology, the term style refers to the formal qualities of a work of art or an artifact (line, shape, proportion, pattern, etc.). Archaeologists have shown that Spiro had a large resident population until about 1250. Nearly a century later, the incident remains the worst looting of an archaeological site in US history. Despite the efforts of archeologists from . remaining items from the Wehrle Cache shown in Figure 22. These plates, along with artifacts from Spiro and Moundville Archaeological Site were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept of the S.E.C.C. Just like Cahokia, Etowah, Moundville, and Spiro, by 1450 the site had been abandoned and replaced by scattered fortified villages. Anthropologists have thought that the Caddo and related peoples had been living in the region for centuries and that they had their own local variant of Mississippian culture. The largest Mississippian settlement was Cahokia, the capital of a major chiefdom that built a six-mile-square city east of the Mississippi River that now is St. Louis, Missouri, in present-day southern Illinois. This Spiro artifact is made from what is commonly known as a conch shell. 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. 14 Hamilton, Henry H. 1952 The Spiro Mound. (Highway 9 is the Oklahoma extension of. 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. 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. 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. 11k followers. There were . Artifacts indicate an extensive trade network, a highly-developed religious center, and a political system which controlled the entire region. This was supplemented with nuts and other wild plants. The Caddoan Mississippian towns had a more irregular layout of earthen mounds and associated villages than did towns in the Middle Mississippian heartland to the east. This event was likely environmental and brought on by what is known today as a Little Ice Age. It is currently These materials included colored flint from New Mexico, copper from the Great Lakes, conch (or lightning whelk) shells from the Gulf Coast, and mica from the Carolinas. The LeFlore County Museum and other artifact sites BBC Travel'sLost Civilisationsdelves into little-known facts about past worlds, dispelling any false myths and narratives that have previously surrounded them. The Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, one of the most important places in ancient America and was called the "Tut's Tomb" of the Arkansas Valley. 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. . Whos Who in Indian Relics, #5 (1980), where it is said; . It is located approximately 1,500 feet (460m) southeast of the plaza. [19] The Caddoan languages once had a broad geographic distribution, but many are now extinct. The sites along the Arkansas River, in particular, seem to have their own distinctive characteristics. "The burial items carry the spirits of our ancestors with them." Each Mississippian center produced its own distinctive art, which in many instances was exchanged with other centers. Probably, most of these valuable objects are lost, but some have been returned through donation and have been documented by scholars. Wehrle. Spiro has been the site of human activity for at least 8,000 years. Bronze statue marks the spinach capital of the world. The goal of exhibition is to share the history of the Spiro culture from its humble beginnings to its rise as one of the premier cultural sites in all of North America. This point measures 1 13/16 inches long (46mm) and 1 1/16 inches wide (26mm). It also was not palisaded, as were the ceremonial centers of Cahokia, Moundville, and Etowah. Spiro continued to be used as a regional ceremonial center and burial ground until about 1450. Blade and mace cache: Part 2. By 1935, most of the Spiro Mounds had been riddled with pits and tunnels, but the largest known as the "Craig Mound" remained largely intact. figure in the cutout can be seen wearing such an earspool. The archaeological site of Spiro is famous for a range of aritfacts including effigy pipes, engraved shell artifacts, embossed copper sheets, bead necklaces, and ear spools that were discovered in the "Great Mortuary" context. The artifacts included works of fragile, perishable materials: textiles and feathers that had been uniquely preserved in the conditions of the closed chamber. 1.3. The modern languages in the Caddoan family include Caddo, Wichita, Kitsai, Pawnee, and Arikara languages. Over 1,000 men, women, and children, along with artifacts, were buried in Craig Mound from the year AD 800 and AD 1450. Spiro Mound. Its ceremonial and mortuary functions continued and seem to have increased after the main population moved away. 1945 The Spiro Mound Collections in the Museum. But visitors to Spiro Mounds can be forgiven if they don't immediately sense the importance of the site, located off a quiet farm road that zig-zags by former cotton fields. [15], Most authorities agree that the people of Spiro were Caddoan speaking, but their descendants in historic times are difficult to identify. ornament such as those seen in Figures 41 and 42. The site is closed for state holidays. . The prehistoric Spiro people created a sophisticated culture which influenced the entire Southeast. cutout copper sheet human head effigy with repousse designs. This Now an exhibition at The Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame brings this to life. [14] Archaeologists have determined that Spiro was at the peak of its cultural importance in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Artifacts from across the country have been found at Spiro Mounds, including copper from the Great Lakes, shell beads from the Gulf of California, and a conch shell from the Gulf of Mexico, indicating a vast trade and communication system. [21][22] The center features various exhibits and trails, and it offers tours,[21] including a virtual tour.[23]. Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to noon1 to 4 p.m. Early looting of the site led to new laws, making Oklahoma one the first states to preserve and scientifically research archaeological sites. 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. The city was palisaded (walled) and had a large grand plaza that was the equivalent of thirty-five football fields. Today, touring the scene of this cultural crime, it's hard to envision the powerful nation that ruled here. Home to rich cultural resources, the Spiro Mounds were created and used by Caddoan speaking Indians between 850 and 1450 AD. May 13, 2023 20 3/4 . Spiro's 12 mounds resemble little more than bumps on the landscape, most covered with trees and brush. The Spiro people probably were speakers of one of the many Caddoan languages. in Oklahoma. 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. The Spiro artifacts were found to be unmatched in modern times. GERMANY: The grave of a 20-year-old Bronze Age woman buried near Tbingen 2,800 years ago contained only a single artifacta delicate gold ribbon. Living near rivers in the Midwest and Southeast, they created highly developed, agriculturally based communities that were mostly fortified and contained large earthen mounds and broad plazas.