Spiro Mounds: Prehistoric Gateway ... Present-Day Enigma

Text by Don G. Wyckoff and Dennis Peterson
A traveling exhibition presented by the Stovall Museum of Science and History and the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.
Spiro Mounds: Prehistoric gateway ... Present-day enigma
The Mound builders of North America circa A.D. 900-1500
The mounds at Spiro, Oklahoma, are among the most important archaeological remains in the United States. A remarkable assemblage of artifacts from the mounds shows that prehistoric Spiro people created a sophisticated culture which influenced the entire Southeast. There was an extensive trade network, a highly developed religious center, and a political system which controlled the region. Located on a bend of the Arkansas River, the site was a natural gateway between societies to the east and the west, a gateway at which Spiro people exerted their influence. Yet much of the Spiro culture is still a mystery, including the reasons for the decline and abandonment of the site. Their objects remain intriguing, and pique the creative thoughts of professional and layman alike. Today, the Spiro site and artifacts are among Oklahoma’s richest cultural resources, and the site is Oklahoma’s only National Historic Landmark and archaeological park.
This archaeological site includes the remains of a village and eleven earthen mounds. Although various groups of people had camped on or near the Spiro area since early prehistoric times, the location did not become a permanent settlement until approximately A.D. 600. Spiro Mounds was renowned in southeastern North America between A.D. 900 and circa 1400, when Spiro’s inhabitants developed political, religious and economic institutions with far-reaching influence on societies from the Plains and the Mississippi Valley to much of what is now the southeastern United States. Because Spiroans maintained such practices as mound construction, a leadership of priest-chiefs, horticulture (of corn, beans and squash), and a religious tradition (the “Southern Cult”) common to the Southeast, they were an example of what archaeologists have termed the Mississippian cultural development in America.