Spiro Mounds facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids
Spiro Mound Group
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Artist's conception of Spiro Mounds, viewed from the west
Location in Oklahoma Show map of Oklahoma Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Nearest city	Spiro, Oklahoma
Area	Le Flore County
Architectural style	Mississippian
NRHP reference No.	69000153
Added to NRHP	September 30, 1969

This engraved shell from Spiro Mounds shows a falcon warrior.

Spiro Mounds is an amazing ancient site in eastern Oklahoma. It was built by Native American people from the Arkansas Valley Caddoan culture. This culture was a big part of the larger Mississippian culture that lived across the Mississippi Valley.

From about the 800s to the 1400s, Spiro Mounds was a very important religious and political center. It was a major city for these ancient people, connected to a wide network of other Mississippian towns. The site covers 80 acres near the Arkansas River.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, people looking for treasure dug into one of the mounds. They found incredible ancient objects, some made of fragile materials like cloth and feathers. These items were uniquely preserved inside a special burial chamber. Sadly, many of these treasures were sold and lost forever.

Later, people realized how important Spiro Mounds was. Steps were taken to protect the site. Today, the Oklahoma Historical Society cares for Spiro Mounds. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is Oklahoma's only Archeological State Park open to the public.

When Did People Live at Spiro Mounds?
What Were the Mounds and Plaza Like?
- The Great Mortuary: A Special Burial Place
What Was the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex?
What Did the Art Mean?
Who Were the Caddoan Mississippians?
Visiting Spiro Mounds Today
See also

When Did People Live at Spiro Mounds?

The history of Spiro Mounds is divided into different time periods:

Evans Phase (900–1050 CE)
Harlan Phase (1050–1250 CE)
Norman Phase (1250–1350 CE)
Spiro Phase (1350–1450 CE)

Around 1250 CE, most people moved from Spiro to nearby villages. However, Spiro Mounds continued to be a special place for ceremonies and burials until about 1450 CE. The area was completely abandoned around 1450 CE, but some nearby communities lasted until 1600 CE.

What Were the Mounds and Plaza Like?

This is what a Spiroan house might have looked like.

The Mississippian culture built large towns with earth mounds across the central and southeastern United States. The biggest Mississippian city was Cahokia, located near modern-day St. Louis, Missouri.

Mississippian towns were known for their huge earthworks. These included platform mounds shaped like pyramids, which had temples or homes for important leaders on top. The mounds were often built around a large, flat central area called a plaza. This plaza was used for important ceremonies and games.

The Spiro site has 12 earthen mounds and covers 150 acres. Like other Mississippian towns, it had many large earthworks. Nine mounds surrounded an oval plaza. People lived in a village next to the plaza. Archaeologists have found more than twenty other villages nearby that were connected to Spiro.

People lived at Spiro for at least 8,000 years. It became a major Mississippian town from 800 to 1450 CE. Growing maize (corn) allowed more people to live together. Spiro was the center of a powerful chiefdom. Its leaders directed the building of eleven platform mounds and one burial mound.

Brown Mound is the largest platform mound. It is on the eastern side of the plaza. It had a ramp leading to its top. Important rituals, especially those about the deaths of Spiro's rulers, happened on top of this mound and others.

After 1250 CE, most people moved away, but Spiro remained a regional center for ceremonies and burials until about 1450 CE.

The Great Mortuary: A Special Burial Place

Craig Mound, also known as the "Great Mortuary."

Craig Mound is the second-largest mound at Spiro and the only one used for burials. It is about 1,500 feet southeast of the plaza. Inside, there was a hollow chamber, about 10 feet high and 15 feet wide. This chamber kept fragile objects made of wood, shell, and copper almost perfectly preserved.

Even items made of materials like baskets, woven cloth, fur, and feathers survived. These kinds of objects were often made by women in ancient tribes. Archaeologists also found stone statues and tools that likely came from the Cahokia site in Illinois.

Archaeologists called this hollow chamber the "Great Mortuary." It seems to have been a special burial place for Spiro's leaders. It was built like a tipi with sacred cedar posts angled together. Earth was piled over this cone-shaped structure to create the mound. Minerals in the soil may have helped harden the log walls, protecting the items inside. No other Mississippian mound has been found with such a hollow space or such well-preserved artifacts. Craig Mound has been compared to an "American King Tut's Tomb" because of its amazing finds.

Between 1933 and 1935, treasure hunters dug into Craig Mound. They broke into the Great Mortuary and found many human burials with their grave goods. Sadly, they threw away the human remains and fragile items like textiles and feathers. Most of these priceless objects were destroyed before experts could study them. The treasure hunters sold the valuable stone, pottery, copper, and shell artifacts to collectors around the world. While many are lost, some have been returned to museums and studied by scholars.

"Resting Warrior" pipe, side view.
Pipe showing a figure smoking from a frog pipe.
Pipe showing a man smoking.
"Lucifer" pipe, rear view.
Two jasper and one chert ceremonial tools.
Ceremonial stone mace.
Copper ear spools.
Engraved shell cup with bird heads.

From 1936 to 1941, archaeologists from the University of Oklahoma carefully excavated parts of the site. In 1978, the Oklahoma Historical Society opened the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center. It is still open today as Oklahoma's only Archeological State Park.

What Was the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex?

This plate from Spiro shows a human-headed bird figure.

The people of Spiro Mounds were part of something called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). This was a network of ceremonial centers that shared the Mississippian culture. They had similar spiritual beliefs, rituals, and special objects.

The SECC was a huge trading network. It brought exotic materials from all over North America to make ritual objects. These materials included colored flint from New Mexico, copper from the Great Lakes, conch shells from the Gulf Coast, and mica from the Carolinas. Spiro was unique because it also got obsidian from Mexico. Artists used these valuable materials to create beautiful art that showed their culture and spiritual beliefs.

When the treasure hunters dug into Craig Mound, they found many amazing ritual artifacts. These included stone pipes, polished stone maces, flint knives, copper axes, engraved shell ornaments, pearl necklaces, and special pottery. The conch shells were carved with detailed designs of people, animals, and geometric shapes. These designs had deep symbolic meanings. The ceremonial objects from Spiro Mounds are some of the best examples of ancient art in North America.

Archaeologists later found that Spiro's ritual artifacts were similar to those found at other powerful Mississippian towns. These included Cahokia in Illinois, Etowah in Georgia, and Moundville in Alabama. Spiro was like a "gateway town." It brought valuable resources from the Great Plains and western regions to the main Mississippian centers in the east. In return, it received valuable goods from those centers. Spiro's location on the Arkansas River helped its traders connect to the heart of the Mississippian world.

Spiro and other Mississippian towns looked to the great city of Cahokia as a cultural example. Cahokia was about 400 miles northeast of Spiro and was the largest Mississippian town. Some beautiful stone pipes found at Spiro, like the famous "Grizzly Man" pipe, were made from materials that came from Cahokia. Cahokia also influenced the art styles at Spiro.

What Did the Art Mean?

This engraved shell gorget from Spiro Mounds shows a striped-center-pole, which was a very important symbol.

This shell gorget from Spiro Mounds shows a spider in the middle and hands with bracelets around the edge.

Experts have tried to understand the meaning of the art and symbols found at Spiro and other Mississippian sites. It's hard to know for sure what art from centuries ago meant. However, by comparing Mississippian art with the myths and rituals of later Native American groups, they have made some good guesses.

One important symbol at Spiro is the "Birdman." This is a winged human figure that might represent a warrior or a player of a game called chunkey. Chunkey was played by many Native American tribes. Players would roll a stone disk and then throw spears as close as possible to where the stone stopped.

Another symbol is the "Great Serpent." This being was believed to live in the Under World, a spiritual place. The Great Serpent is shown with a snake's body, but also with wings or horns. Similar beings appear in the myths of tribes like the Cherokee and Caddo. These beings were thought to be in constant opposition to those in the Upper World.

Mississippian art also features the cedar tree or striped-center-pole. Researchers believe this represents the axis mundi. This is a point where the three parts of the Mississippian spiritual universe meet: the Upper World, the Under World, and the Middle World where humans live. The cedar tree was a sacred wood. The fact that the Great Mortuary was built with cedar posts suggests it was seen as a place to move between spiritual worlds.

Archaeologists found a black residue in one of the shell cups from Craig Mound. This suggests that the Spiro people might have practiced a "Black Drink Ceremony." This was a purification ritual performed by later Southeastern tribes. People would drink a tea made from the Yaupon Holly from conch shell cups.

Who Were the Caddoan Mississippians?

Map showing the Caddoan Mississippian culture area and some important sites.

Most experts believe the people of Spiro spoke a Caddoan language. It's hard to know exactly who their descendants are today. Some think the Caddo Nation, Wichita, or Kichai peoples might be their descendants. However, the cultures of these groups were quite different when Europeans first met them in the 1500s and 1600s.

Today, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco and Tawakonie) are recognized as the cultural descendants of the Spiro Mounds builders.

In the 1540s, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto traveled through what is now the southeastern United States. He met Native American groups like the Tula people and many Caddo villages. The Caddo were organized into three groups, all speaking similar languages.

At that time, the Caddoan peoples lived in a large area. This included parts of eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana. Experts believe the Caddo and related peoples had lived in this region for centuries. They had their own unique version of Mississippian culture.

Recent digs have shown more cultural differences than expected within this region. Sites along the Arkansas River, like Spiro, seem to have their own special features. However, all Mississippian sites in the Caddo area are still called "Caddoan Mississippian."

The Caddoan Mississippian region had many towns besides Spiro, such as the Battle Mound Site. Battle Mound, in southwest Arkansas, was even larger than Spiro. Not much digging has been done there yet. Caddoan Mississippian towns had a less regular layout of mounds and villages compared to towns further east. They also didn't have the wooden walls often found in major Middle Mississippian towns. Living on the western edge of the Mississippian world, the Caddoan people may have faced fewer threats from their neighbors.

The Spiro people likely spoke one of the many Caddoan languages. Many of these languages are now extinct. Modern Caddoan languages include Caddo, Wichita, Kitsai, Pawnee, and Arikara languages.

Visiting Spiro Mounds Today

The Spiro Mounds are part of the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center. This center is located in Fort Coffee, Oklahoma. You can visit the center to see exhibits and walk on trails. They also offer tours, including virtual tours, to help you learn more about this amazing ancient site.