Spiro has been the site of human activity for at least 8,000 years. 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. C. It has burial artifacts that date to earlier than 10,000 BCE. Oklahoma's Spiro Mounds is one of America's most important ancient cultural and religious centers. Spiro, located on the Arkansas River, sat at a natural passage between the east and west, and grew as a trade centre. The Human Effigy head was purchased by Dr. C.P. During this time, the site saw the enlargement of previously created mounds as well as many newly-constructed ones. A. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park submitted by Flickr Woolaroc Spiro Mounds artifacts Spiro mound artifacts on display at Woolaroc Museum, near Bartlesville. In 1933 on the eastern edge of the US state of Oklahoma, a group of failed gold prospectors watched as their partner struck a pickaxe into clay. When commercial excavators dug into Craig Mound in the 1930s, they found many beautifully crafted ritual artifacts, including stone effigy pipes, polished stone maces, finely made flint knives and arrow points, polished chunkey stones, copper effigy axes, Mississippian copper plates (Spiro plates), mica effigy cut outs, elaborately engraved conch shell ornaments, pearl bead necklaces, stone earspools, wood carvings inlaid with shell, and specially made mortuary pottery. It is clear that this is not simulating a real And on a June afternoon, as birds chirp in the nearby woods and a hawk glides silently above, a visitor can walk across a once-great city and, perhaps, just for a moment, catch a glimpse of its glorious past. Many are still used today by multiple Indigenous artistsallowing people to identify and understand this common ideology. Visitors to Spiro Mounds might not immediately sense the importance of the site (Credit: Larry Bleiberg). The other principal cities were in Etowah, Georgia; Moundville, Alabama; and Cahokia, Illinois, near St. Louis, which was the biggest. Spiro Mound. It is a physiological test that measures how an individual inhales or exhales volume of air as a function of time. 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. "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. The Spiro site includes twelve earthen mounds and 150 acres of land. Cahokia was also the likely epicenter of an artistic tradition referred to as Braden. These were sold to Mr. Cooperrider of Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center 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. Nine of the mounds surround a central plaza with a larger mound (Brown Mound) in the center which served a religious/ceremonial purpose. in the collection of Bobby Onken. The Spiro Mounds ceremonial objects are among the finest examples of pre-Columbian art in North America. Just like Cahokia, Etowah, Moundville, and Spiro, by 1450 the site had been abandoned and replaced by scattered fortified villages. Prehistoric American Volume XXXVII Number 3, 2003. spiromound-0022- Figure 22: Exhibit. page 142, plate 100 (catalog number 95). The "Great Mortuary", as archaeologists called this hollow chamber, appears to have begun as a burial structure for Spiro's rulers. 2 11/16" Tablet. This region had easy access to salt and mineral springs, which made it a powerful trade zone. (Highway 9 is the Oklahoma extension of. 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. 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. 2004 The Spiro Mound: A . "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. Now an exhibition at The Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame brings this to life. I thought at first they were Spiro Mound artifacts. The protected site included 150 acres of land that encompass twelve mounds, the elite village area and part of the support city. Visitors can explore nearly two miles of interpreted trails, including a one-half mile nature trail. "This is something they can have pride in.". On top of each mound sat various public and religious structures as well as the chiefly residence. 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. Artifacts indicate an extensive trade network, a highly-developed religious center, and a political system which controlled the entire region. 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.". 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. No purchase necessary. located on Lock & Dam Road, 4 1/2 miles. which was exposed to major damage due to the looting of its artifacts. Closed Monday and Tuesdays. [20] Wichita and Kitsai are both extinct. It would have been noisy with kids and animals," he said. The mining company was finally shut down in 1935, and in 1936 the University of Oklahoma started a scientific excavation that lasted until 1941. The site is open. THE SPIRO MOUNDS DIG. Much of the Spiro culture is still a mystery, as well as the reasons for the decline and abandonment of the site. 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). Manuela Beltrn Is a Colombian Hero. he was not a collector, he asked Bell to purchase the frame for Other village sites linked to Spiro through culture and trade have been found up to a 100 miles (160km) away. Located on the banks of the Black Warrior River thirteen miles south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Moundville was established around AD 1000 and rose in prominence to become one of the principal ceremonial centers in the Mississippian world. 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. this 13 1/8 inch flint lance has a maximum thickness at one 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]. The mound center declined and was eventually abandoned by AD 1450, although the city continued to be occupied for another 150 years. Comprising nearly thirty mounds, Moundville can be divided into five separate phases, each defined by a distinct ceramic style: West Jefferson (AD 10201120), Moundville I (AD 11201260), Moundville II (AD 12601400), Moundville III (AD 14001520), and Moundville IV (AD 15201650). It was inhabited between about 950 and 1450 CE. 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. 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. N35 degrees, 18.696 minutes, W94 degrees, 34.164 minutes. Townsend collection in Mr. Onkens Legends of Prehistoric camera bag (See Photograph 12). The Spiro Mound center declined and was eventually abandoned by 1450 AD, although the city was continuously occupied for about 150 years. Scholars still classify the Mississippian sites found in the entire Caddo area, including Spiro Mounds, as "Caddoan Mississippian".[18]. long narrow blades from the Wehrle Cache. The first period of abandonment occurred in AD 1200 and lasted for nearly fifty years. Interstate 540 in Fort Smith). 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. Bronze statue marks the spinach capital of the world. This piece is now at the Ohio The Spiro Mounds are located within the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center complex in Fort Coffee, Oklahoma. 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. 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. [4] The cultivation of maize during this period allowed accumulation of crop surpluses and the gathering of more dense populations. Today, the Spiro Mounds Archaeological . Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center opened to the public on May 9, 1978. 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. and Robert Phelps of Marion, Ohio, arranged by Henry C. Shetrone, 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? ", U.S. National Register of Historic Places, Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco and Tawakonie), "National Register Properties in Oklahoma", Caddo Fundamentals: Spiro and the Arkansas Basin., "Spiro Mounds-A Ceremonial Center of the Southern Cult", "Caddo Fundamentals: Spiro and the Arkansas Basin. "You compare it to art from any culture at any time in the past, and you have to admit it's a masterwork.". This artifact was recovered from remaining items from the Wehrle Cache shown in Figure 22. Anthropologists have tried in recent years to interpret the meaning of the ritual artifacts and artistic imagery found at Spiro and other Mississippian sites. Context & History WHEN SPIRO WAS FIRST SETTLED during the Evans Phase (900-1050), Toltec Mounds in central Arkansas was a prominent spiritual center, and early Spiro pottery resembles that found at Toltec Mounds and at Caddo sites along the Red River. Spiro Mounds was unearthed by a group of local men in the 1930s who looted it (Credit: Larry Bleiberg). The mounds barely rate a mention in textbooks, he said, while noting that some years, nearly half his students have Native American heritage. The Caddoan Mississippian region contained many towns in addition to Spiro, including the Battle Mound Site. Florida plates Copper Solar Ogee Deity plate found at Lake Jackson Mounds, Florida . Harry T. Bell- Robert Bell's father, an artifact collector from Marion, Ohio. The population rapidly diminished, the number of burials increased, and the large defensive walls were demolished. pieces in this cache not included in this collection. of 205 bird points from Spiro. These were purchased "The most distinctive feature of the site (Spiro Mound) was the saddle-shaped mound known as The Spiro Mound or the Great Temple Mound, (It has been renamed the Craig Mound---)." The mounds site, located seven miles outside of Spiro, Oklahoma, is the only prehistoric, American Indian archaeological site in Oklahoma open to the public. Early looting of the site led to new laws, making Oklahoma one the first states to preserve and scientifically research archaeological sites. The mound center declined and was eventually abandoned by AD 1450, although the city . (left) for other items in the cache. 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 . Divided into at least four allotment partitions, the Spiro site was . It is unknown why it was abandoned. The sites along the Arkansas River, in particular, seem to have their own distinctive characteristics. Spirometer prices. 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. All rights reserved. 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. Forrest E. Clements- Worked for the state as an archaeologist, wrote the first interpretation of the Spiro Mound. Despite the efforts of archeologists from . Mineralogical analysis of some of the most beautiful stone effigy pipes found at Spiro, including the famous "Grizzly Man" or "Kneeling Rattler" pipe, have shown they came from Cahokia, based on the material from which they were made. Spiro Mound. was glued together as shown in the photograph taken April 15, of $100. Download Free PDF View PDF. The largest Mississippian ceremonial center known today is Cahokia. . 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. Craig Mound has been called "an American King Tut's Tomb". [6] The mound area was abandoned about 1450, but nearby communities persisted until 1600. 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. The LeFlore County Museum and other artifact sites This Spiro artifact is made from what is commonly known as a conch shell. Artistically made. 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. 2023 Atlas Obscura. Oklahoma Historical Society800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73105 | 405-521-2491Site Index | Contact Us | Privacy | Press Room | Website Inquiries, Get Updates in Your Inbox Keep up to date with our weekly newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. two photographs show a total of twenty artifacts found in a cache Hamilton, Henry, Jean Tyree Hamilton, & Eleanor Chapman. 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. These include Cahokia in Illinois, the largest Mississippian town; Etowah and Ocmulgee in Georgia; and Moundville in Alabama. Artifacts . [13] Since the late 1980s, archaeologists have adopted a new classification scheme that is based on their greatly improved understanding of Mississippian cultural development. The heart of the site is a group of nine mounds surrounding an oval plaza. The artifacts included works of fragile, perishable materials: textiles and feathers that had been uniquely preserved in the conditions of the closed chamber. The rest of the artifacts were sold off around the world; most were lost to obscurity.
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