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. More than a decade in the making, this nearly 200-object exhibition with companion publication and educational programming were developed in collaboration with the Caddo Nation, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and scholars from over a dozen universities and museums from across the United States. Our first view of the mounds. 1.3. Peterson, the centre's manager and sole employee, said visitors must use their imagination. 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. Spiro Mounds by Cindy Downes - Oklahoma Homeschool At the time of de Soto's conquest, the Caddoan peoples occupied a large territory. Spiro - Page 2 - archaeology @ snomnh And while it's painful to see the artefacts outside of tombs where they belong, he's pleased that non-Natives are having a chance to learn about his culture. After that, most of the population moved to other towns nearby. 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. What If She Never Existed? Engraving of a Birdman found in Spiro Mound. middle of the blade, about one-fourth of the way up from the 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 is pictured in color in Archaeologists say the leaders rebuilt an existing royal burial mound, filling the hollow chamber with the most powerful ritual objects they had including rare minerals, feathered capes, axes and other weapons. Spiro Mound. . The 80-acre site is located within a floodplain on the southern side of the Arkansas River. 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. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. 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 site has been significant for North American archaeology since the 1930s, especially due to its many preserved textiles and a wealth of shell carving. Destruction of the Spiro Mounds The mounds are one of the most important American Indian sites in the nation. Founded around AD 1050, this site is divided into five separate phases: Lohmann (AD 10501100), Stirling (AD 10001200), Moorehead (AD 12001275), Sand Prairie (AD 12751350), and Oneta (AD 13501650). Other museums in Oklahoma with collections of Spiro artworks and artifacts . in this photograph, are shown in his Plate 46. spiromound-0046- Figure 46: The Mississippian people moved and traded between towns and regions by walking or using canoes. he was not a collector, he asked Bell to purchase the frame for . They removed thousands of objects, making no attempt to document the site or its holdings. On top of each mound sat various public and religious structures as well as the chiefly residence. The weather was warm but slightly overcast and threatening rain. Etowah was a large Mississippian center constructed about the same time as Cahokia and Moundville. The cities began to crumble. spiromound-0012- Figure 12: The One of the most important American Indian sites in the nation, the Spiro Mounds are world renowned because of the incredible amount of art and artifacts dug from the Craig Mound, the site's only burial mound. When Mound 3 at the site was excavated it yielded fourteen copper plates, deposited in the . These are the characteristics of an object that allow it to be grouped with similar works. Participants drank a tea made from the Yaupon Holly from conch shell cups. Among the artifacts found at the Spiro Mounds site in Spiro, Oklahoma was a group of earspools. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Artifacts from Spiro Mounds have been documented in at least 65 facilities around . These differences in food cultivation and mound construction often leave scholars defining this region, and site, as Caddoan and not specifically Mississippian. The Spiro Mounds are located within the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center complex in Fort Coffee, Oklahoma. The site remained unoccupied from AD 1600 until 1832. Pin on Handcrafted : Artifacts and related items Spiro Mounds - Wikipedia One of the most important American Indian sites in the nation, the Spiro Mounds are world renowned for the high volume of art and artifacts dug from the Craig Mound, the site's only burial mound. A treasure lost to time: Looters destroyed America's largest collection of Native American relics. Monkeys inhabit the lush forest surrounding ancient Mayan ruins once considered sacred. Little excavation has been conducted there to date. [10] Using these valued materials, Mississippian artists created exquisite works of art reflecting their cultural identity and their complex spiritual beliefs. photograph shows seven of the long narrow blades, also called photograph is 17 long and the longest mace is 16 3/8 Hours It is unknown why it was abandoned. One of the most prominent symbols at Spiro is the "Birdman", a winged human figure representing a warrior or chunkey player. 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.". He said museum curators worked closely with Native communities to ensure Spiro's story was properly interpreted. 11k followers. Harry T. Bell- Robert Bell's father, an artifact collector from Marion, Ohio. 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. Later, steps were taken to protect the site. Spiro, OK 74959 The most Amazing Archaeological Dig Sites | Actforlibraries.org . National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center opened to the public on May 9, 1978. It came from the Spiro Mound or the Great Mound in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. and sold elsewhere. When the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto led a military expedition into what is now the southeastern United States in the 1540s, he encountered Native American groups including the Tula people, who lived near the Arkansas River. The city center was surrounded by a large defensive wall and sat on nearly 185 acres. 14 Hamilton, Henry H. 1952 The Spiro Mound. The looting of Spiro, exhibits explain, was driven by the desperation of the Great Depression. of Prehistoric Art - Volume 1. B. It is a Spiro Mound site that has a large amount of burial art and It is the site of the first human skeleton in Oklahoma. The Great Serpent is portrayed in Mississippian art with a serpent's body, but also with wings or horns. Pauketat, Timothy R. and Thomas E. Emerson (eds.). was glued together as shown in the photograph taken April 15, Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park [34 LF 40, Fort Coffee Mounds, Craig Excavations at house Mound 5 at the spiro site 5 1.4. All rights reserved. Spiro's treasures include engraved conch shells from the Florida Keys, copper breastplates from the Great Lakes and beads from the Gulf of California. The remainder of the cache is It was inhabited between about 950 and 1450 CE. The site is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 to 5 and on Sundays from noon to 5. Number 3, 2003. spiromound-0008- Figure 8: 3000 Gustav's Library rare books of American Archaeology and the American Spiro Mounds: Spanish Gold, Empires, and Southeast Oklahoma The artifacts included works of fragile, perishable materials: textiles and feathers that had been uniquely preserved in the conditions of the closed chamber. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "The Essential List". Containing twelve mounds and a population of several thousand, it was physically unremarkable when compared to many other North American Mississippian sites. The treasure hunters sold the artifacts they recovered to art collectors, some as far away as Europe. The following articles are featured: An Interpretation of the Place of Spiro in Southeastern Archaeology by James B. Griffin. B _____ was the ancient isthmus that connected present-day Alaska to northeastern Russia. 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. and Robert Phelps of Marion, Ohio, arranged by Henry C. Shetrone, Just like Cahokia, Etowah, Moundville, and Spiro, by 1450 the site had been abandoned and replaced by scattered fortified villages. There were The mounds were arranged around large, constructed flat plazas believed to be used for ceremonial community gathering and ritual games. al. No other Mississippian mound has been found with such a hollow space inside it, nor with such spectacular preservation of artifacts. Wehrle. Henry Hamilton traced the design decorations on the Spiro Mound artifacts by placing tracing paper on top of the artifact. piece is shown in Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians on Investigating Spiro Mounds - Arkansas Archeological Survey "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 . Now an exhibition at The Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame brings this to life. The artefacts they discovered were immediately sold around the globe. Aside from the cultural importance of the . 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]. 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 area known as the Cumberland has one of the densest concentrations of mound sites from the Mississippian Period. remaining items from the Wehrle Cache shown in Figure 22. The site is open. Artifacts indicate an extensive trade network, a highly-developed religious center, and a political system which controlled the entire region. Today, touring the scene of this cultural crime, it's hard to envision the powerful nation that ruled here. 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. Corn (maize) was the most harvested plant, but others, such as sunflowers, squash, beans, hickory nuts, and acorns were also utilized. Humans had to fear these beings, according to Native American mythology, but they could also gain great power from them in certain circumstances. $20. Craig Mound also called "The Spiro Mound" is the second-largest mound on the site and the only burial mound. After AD 1450, the site and region underwent considerable cultural and environmental changes. . 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. Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. The mounds barely rate a mention in textbooks, he said, while noting that some years, nearly half his students have Native American heritage. Where did the Spiro Mound Builders develop their culture? In return, it received valuable goods from those other centers. Offer subject to change without notice. N35 degrees, 18.696 minutes, W94 degrees, 34.164 minutes. cutout copper sheet human head effigy with repousse designs. It is also shown in Subscribe Now, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Program, Spiro Mounds: A Story of Prehistoric Oklahoma,. Spiro continued to be used as a regional ceremonial center and burial ground until about 1450. They also lacked the wooden palisade fortifications often found in the major Middle Mississippian towns. The Spiro Mounds treasure made headlines nationwide. The Spiro is one of the key sites known for the Mississippian Period (ad 900-1500) of the eastern United States. Other rooms hold modest galleries with replica artefacts. Oklahoma's Spiro Mounds is one of America's most important ancient cultural and religious centers. Two Shell Earspools from Spiro Mound, LeFlore Co, OK. 1" and 1 1/4". What made it unique were the thousands of ceremonial objects found in an earthen Hollow Chambersomething not seen anywhere else in North America. Dr. Robert E. Bell said the cache would fit in his Admission fees are waived while the center is undergoing updates. . Each phase is identified by distinct ceramic types and style of architecture. B. Bison bones found at the Burnham site . Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. 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. The story of the m. (Highway 9 is the Oklahoma extension of. This site remains the location of one of the largest and longest episodes of looting at any American archaeological site in history. While Cahokia declined, however, Spiro's importance was increasing greatly, thanks to its strategic location on the Arkansas River with easy access to both the Plains and the Woodlands. Craig Mound Artifacts & History Its Destruction [4] The cultivation of maize during this period allowed accumulation of crop surpluses and the gathering of more dense populations. Lord Dragonstar. 1945 The Spiro Mound Collections in the Museum. Braden is a highly refined artistic style known for its representation of Morning Star and Earthmother as well as its depictions of plants, animals, and humans with references to body painting and tattooing. Over 1,000 men, women, and children, along with artifacts, were buried in Craig Mound from the year AD 800 and AD 1450. It is in present-day Georgia and sits on the banks of the Etowah River in Bartow County, just south of Cartersville. Blade and mace cache: Part 2. The interpretive centre itself feels like a time warp, where a nearly 40-year-old introductory slide is shown by request. The largest mound, Mound A, had a base of two acres and was approximately twenty feet high. It had an earthen ramp that gave access to the summit from the northern side. The blade was broken in one place and was glued together as shown in the photograph taken April 15, 1935. By AD 1300, however, Moundville had undergone substantial change. 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. Download Free PDF View PDF. Good condition. "You compare it to art from any culture at any time in the past, and you have to admit it's a masterwork.". The new scheme divides the SECC into five periods, or horizons, each defined by the appearance of new ritual objects and cultural motifs connected with new developments in politics and long-distance trade. SpiroMound.com- Artifacts Page This suggests that the Spiro people may have practiced a version of the Black Drink Ceremony, a purification ritual that was also performed in historic times by their descendants - the southeastern tribes. Ex-Ken Partain, Lonnie Hartline, Tommy Bryden . When looting threatened to destroy and disperse everything at the mounds, Oklahoma became one of the first states to preserve and scientifically research archaeological sites. a total of 17 blades plus three maces in the group sold to Mr. The compatriots pushed their way through the debris into a Native American mound, amazed by what they saw. . As a site devastated by looting in the 1930s, Spiro served as a test case in the development of state-level legislation to protect antiquities, bringing artifact looting into the public eye. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Which of the following prehistoric cultures built 12 mounds by hand between 850 and 1450 CE?, Which of the following factors led to theories that Paleo-Indians may have been in Oklahoma as early as 30,000 BCE? They shared horticulture, elaborate ceremonies, mound building, and an iconographic writing system with more than sixty different tribes. As the nation prospered, a priest class evolved, which took responsibility for planting and harvest ceremonies, and marking the annual solstices and equinoxes that governed the growing seasons. They paid the owner of Spiro's largest mound $300 for temporary rights to dig it up, although the men had no idea what lay inside. Bell-Townsend-Onken Blade. Spiro Mounds and Artifacts | Flickr [19] The Caddoan languages once had a broad geographic distribution, but many are now extinct. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. eye design is like the marking of the peregrine falcon. Each Mississippian center produced its own distinctive art, which in many instances was exchanged with other centers. Director: Anna Vincent, Geocache location 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 Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to noon1 to 4 p.m. Pictures and description of several large bifaces that were excavated from Craig Mound in the 1930's by the Pocola Mining Company. Native American Heritage | Spiro Mounds | Experience Fort Smith Spiro Mounds: North America's lost civilisation - BBC Travel The population lived in a village that bordered the plaza. Archaeologists have shown that Spiro had a large resident population until about 1250. Its ceremonial and mortuary functions continued and seem to have increased after the main population moved away. 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. It was built in Norway around the year 820, and it was discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tnsberg in 1904. obtained. 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. 35.311731, -94.568431 Based upon these historic records, the game consisted of players rolling a stone disk for a considerable distance and then hurling spears as close as they could to the point where the stone stopped. This plant-based diet was supplemented with large and small game, such as bison, deer, and rabbit, as well as fish. Stone tools found at the Cooperton site were more advanced than expected. Interstate 540 in Fort Smith). 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 . When it rose once more, it was under the rulership of a new chiefdom. [16], Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco and Tawakonie) are recognized by the U.S. Federal government, cultural anthropologists, and archaeologists as the cultural descendants of the builders of Spiro Mounds.[17]. this 13 1/8 inch flint lance has a maximum thickness at one [20] Wichita and Kitsai are both extinct. The first period of abandonment occurred in AD 1200 and lasted for nearly fifty years. Mr. Schellenberger of From the 1870s Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen farmed the land within the complex, but the mounds remained undisturbed until 1917. Spiro was a major western outpost of Mississippian culture, which dominated the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries for centuries. Trade Materials at Spiro Mound as Indicated by Artifacts The story behind the artefacts is just as compelling. Other village sites linked to Spiro through culture and trade have been found up to a 100 miles (160km) away. Spiro Mound. cover of the Prehistoric American Volume XXXVII ", "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. The largest, Mound C, served as the mortuary facility for Etowahs elite and included objects and iconographic imagery matching other regional stylesnamely Braden. The blade was broken in one place and The sites along the Arkansas River, in particular, seem to have their own distinctive characteristics. Spiro Mound Village pamphlet . Tejas > Caddo Fundamentals > Spiro and the Arkansas Basin This Little Ice Age would have change weather patternseffecting temperature, rain, and animal populations. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center | Oklahoma Historical Society Artifacts from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma Instead, they harvested chenopod (quinoa), maygrass, barley, and knotweed. Mississippian copper plates - Wikipedia over the head. The singular ruins of a mysterious lost city. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. The area was largely empty from 1600 to 1832, when Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman cleared the site for farming. Spiro's 12 mounds resemble little more than bumps on the landscape, most covered with trees and brush. Spiro has been the site of human activity for at least 8,000 years. 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.