Spiro (archaeological site)
Spiro is an archaeological site located in eastern Oklahoma, recognized as a significant center for the Caddo culture during the Late Prehistoric period, around 1200 to 1350 CE. The site spans approximately 80 acres and features prominent earth mounds, including dome-shaped mounds and platform mounds, which were used for various ceremonial and burial practices. Spiro is particularly noted for its elaborate burials and a wealth of artifacts made from shell and copper, which reflect a complex society with a powerful elite.
The Great Mortuary at Craig Mound contained an exceptional collection of grave goods, showcasing items such as decorated shell cups, intricate textiles, and copper plates depicting warriors. Unfortunately, the site suffered extensive looting in the 1930s, leading to the destruction of many burial mounds and their contents. Despite this, the artifacts recovered from Spiro provide crucial insights into the cultural practices, social hierarchy, and trade networks of the Caddo people. The decline of Spiro is believed to be linked to broader changes in regional societies prior to European contact, marking it as an important historical and archaeological landmark.
Spiro (archaeological site)
Category: Archaeological site
Date: 1000-1350
Location: Eastern Oklahoma
Culture affected: Caddo
Spiro, in eastern Oklahoma, was the most important western center of the Caddo in the Late Prehistoric period (1200-1350). It is situated within an area of escarpments along the Arkansas River, in a location that was strategic for contacts between the southern Plains and the lowlands of the Mississippi Valley. The site covers an area of 80 acres, although not all of this area was occupied simultaneously. It is best known for its elaborate burials and thousands of art objects of shell and copper. The site was first occupied during the Late Archaic period (circa 2500 to 500 b.c.e.), but its most spectacular features date between 900 and 1350 c.e.
Prior to the site’s disturbance, it included nine prominent mounds. Of these, six were low, dome-shaped mounds that covered the foundations of structures, and two were platform mounds, designed to elevate perishable structures. The dome-shaped mounds, ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 feet high and 30 to 75 feet in diameter, were built over dismantled structures. The platform mounds, shaped like truncated pyramids with earthen ramps, had rectangular ground plans. The largest, Brown Mound, measured 18 feet high and 200 by 175 feet at the base. It is believed to have at one time contained burials, but these were subsequently destroyed by looting. Craig Mound, the largest feature at the site, was constructed of four conical mounds joined to form a continuous feature. It measured 300 feet long, with a maximum width of about 100 feet. The main cone was 33 feet high, while the smaller ones were about 15 feet high.
Craig Mound covered a series of ground-level mortuaries, some of which may predate the mound’s construction. The largest, known as the Great Mortuary, contained the most elaborate collection of grave goods ever reported in the continental United States. These were the object of intense pillaging and looting, however, resulting in the destruction of burials and structures. The central chamber of the Great Mortuary held spectacular burials of the site’s highest-ranking elite in the form of cedar pole litters that contained skeletal remains and precious objects such as decorated shell cups and gorgets, shell and pearl beads, and fine textiles. One burial was accompanied by at least three large copper plates with embossed representations of warriors. The Great Mortuary dates to circa 1200-1350, at which time Spiro was clearly a major center for ritual activity.
The destruction of the burial mounds at Spiro is one of the most tragic chapters in archaeology in American. In the 1930’s, “mining rights” were sold to local treasure hunters, who tunneled into the site’s major structures. Attempts to prevent the site’s destruction through legislation only exacerbated the looting, and the main cone of Craig Mound was gutted in the summer of 1935. An archaeologist who visited the site found sections of cedar poles scattered on the ground and an area littered with thousands of fragments of feather and fur textiles, broken pottery, engraved shells, and beads of shell, stone, and bone. As an expression of their annoyance, the looters dynamited the mound. Subsequent archaeological excavations suggested the existence of a large, open chamber at the center of the mound framed by cedar poles and filled with piles of textiles, beads, and other objects. This chamber and others were the source of thousands of artifacts purchased by dealers and private collectors.
The artifacts from Spiro include a wide variety of ornaments, including earspools, shell gorgets, and copper headdress plates. There were a large number of weapons, among them stone axes, warclubs, and chipped stone blades. Masks, staffs, figurines, and pipes were among the ritual objects. Textile items included multicolored mantles, skirts, headbands, and caps. Some burials were placed in large, boxlike baskets. The engraved shells from Spiro, mostly cups and gorgets, provide a larger corpus of iconography and images of prehistoric Southeastern culture than any other source. They are decorated with representations of warriors, human sacrifice, and a wide variety of esoteric symbols associated with the “Southern Cult.”
The objects at Spiro indicate the existence of a strongly ranked society with a powerful and wealthy elite. Objects of native copper from Lake Superior or the southern Appalachians and quantities of marine shell from eastern Florida testify to the existence of networks for long-distance exchange. The site appears to have been an important ceremonial and political center with strong ties to Mississippian cultures of the Southeast. Its decline is probably linked to a widespread dissolution of “temple town” societies that also affected centers in the Mississippi Valley prior to the arrival of Europeans.