Spiro Mounds is a huge earthwork located way out at the very far western edge of the late prehistoric cultural manifestation archaeologists call the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, and associated with the Mississippian period. During the late prehistoric period (roughly 700 to 1200 AD), groups of people from Georgia to Oklahoma and Minnesota to Texas in what is now the United States built mounds, both for burying their dead and for other ceremonial purposes.
These groups hunted and gathered for food, and raised or tended corn, squash, and beans; they had complex societies and trade networks. Catlinite stone pipes, pottery vessels, gulf coast shell gorgets, copper ear spools and the raw materials for these objects moved far and wide. East of the Mississippi, the mound-building groups are known as Mississippian; west of the Mississippi the groups are called Caddoan. Caddoan ceremonial societies were based on the Arkansas River of Oklahoma and the Red River of Louisiana and Texas.
Spiro and the Cemeteries
Located along the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, the 89 acre Spiro site was built of at least 15 mounds and a village of rectangular houses. One of the largest known prehistoric cemeteries in North America is sited at Spiro, with more than 750 burials dated between AD 850-1450. Grave goods found at Spiro during the Works Progress Administration excavations of the 1930s and the Oklahoma Archeological Survey work of the 1960s-1980s are of quality and quantity not found anywhere else within the southern cult sites. Conchs from Florida, copper from the southeast, lead from northern Illinois and Iowa, pottery from Tennessee, stone tool sources from Kansas, Texas, and southern Illinois; all of these things made their way into the hands of Spiro's leaders.
Slowly over time, as these things happen, the village around Spiro's mound center grew, but the center did not, and by 1450, the center did not hold and the population moved on.
Visiting Spiro Mounds
The Spiro Mounds site and museum are managed by the Oklahoma Historical Society, and they are open to the public several days a week throughout the year. A winter solstice walk is scheduled every year to see this amazing Mississippian site.
Sources for More Information
This article is a part of the About.com Guide to the Mississippian Civilization, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
A Spiro Mounds bibliography has been built for this project.
