Spiro was known locally as a prehistoric Indian site as early as the late nineteenth century. However, it was not until 1933 that the Spiro Mounds attracted national and worldwide attention. In that year, a group of treasure hunters leased the site and began excavating the largest mound. They discovered rich troves of spectacular artifacts, including objects of wood, cloth, copper, shell, basketry and stone. Unfortunately, the diggers were only concerned with finding and selling the relics, not with preserving or recording their significance or their context. Consequently, not only were important prehistoric artifacts looted and sold out of Oklahoma, but, like pages ripped from a rare book, irreplaceable information about Oklahoma’s past was lost forever.
Pot hunters digging Craig Mound, 1933 Robert E. Bell
Works Progress Administration controlled excavations, 1936-1941 Robert E. Bell
In an effort to prevent repetition of the tragedy at Spiro Mounds, the Oklahoma legislature passed the state’s first antiquities preservation law in 1936. At the same time, state leaders worked to initiate a joint research venture by the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Historical Society, and the University of Tulsa to scientifically excavate the Spiro Mounds site. Between 1936 and 1941, Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers, under the supervision of University of Oklahoma archaeologists, conducted a systematic excavation of the remainder of the Spiro Mounds. The WPA crews and archaeologists excavated and recorded the stratigraphy (sequence of deposit), burials, crematory pits and other features which remained in the largest and most severely damaged mound. Called the Craig Mound, this earthwork was 33 feet high and 400 feet long. Study revealed that Craig Mound, which was actually four joined mounds, had been constructed between A.D. 800 and circa 1350 to cover the graves of the society’s most important leaders. Besides the Craig Mound, WPA workers excavated the remains of other mounds, the locations of several prehistoric houses, and other features at many nearby village sites.
OU Electronic Media and Photo Services—Gilbert A. Jain
Since 1964, the Spiro Mounds and other related sites in eastern Oklahoma have become points of renewed interest to archaeologists. Spurred to salvage important information from areas threatened by construction and development, archaeologists recognized an unparalleled opportunity to document and explain the rise and decline of a remarkable prehistoric society. Thus, for the past 20 years, archaeologists have re-examined the WPA records, studied newly excavated sites and patiently pieced together artifacts to determine the lifeways of these prehistoric Oklahomans.
The new findings show the Spiro site as one of the premier trading and religious centers of prehistoric America. Situated in a narrow valley of the Arkansas River, the Spiroans were in a strategic position to control traffic, trade and communications along this waterway, especially between the small villages scattered among the Ouachita Mountains to the south and the Ozarks to the north. Both of these regions were rich in raw materials favored by the Spiro people. Not only did Spiro become an important center for Caddoan-speaking residents of eastern Oklahoma, but it also began to play a significant role in controlling trade and information between bison-hunting Plains farmers to the west and the numerous settled horticultural tribes in the Southeast. This development was enhanced by Spiro’s “gateway” position between the rolling grassy Plains and the wooded Southeast, as well as by the initiative of Spiro leaders.