Spiro Mounds Site, 18154 First Street, Spiro

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OK-37. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Spiro Mounds archaeological site is one of the most important prehistoric Native American sites in Oklahoma and the United States. The mounds mark ceremonial areas used for burials, temples, and homes of the Spiro, a sophisticated people, who, based on artifacts found at the site, had extensive trade practices with other Native American groups on both coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes region. The Spiro also had an advanced religious center and political system that controlled much of the region. Archaeological excavations at the site have produced a large quantity of art and artifacts that makes it one of the best archaeological sites for the study of the Mississippian culture.

The site is classified as an ethnographic landscape and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in History: Located in eastern Oklahoma near the Arkansas River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Spiro Mound Site encompasses 150 acres that included 12 mounds (one burial mound, two temple mounds, and nine mounds used either for a base or to bury homes), housing for the elite, and outlying support facilities worked by lower ranking members of the society. They were similar to other Mississippian tribes in their mound building practices, religious ceremonies, had a picture writing system, and spoke a Caddoan language similar to the Wichitas, Kichai, Caddo, Pawnee, and Arikara. The culture peaked from A.D.

900 to at the mound site, but by the site declined in importance and was abandoned. During the the mounds were discovered and plundered before academic excavations began by the University of Oklahoma. The mounds held a remarkably high quantity of artifacts about the culture and produced one of the largest collections of prehistoric Native American artifacts to be discovered in the United States. In the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a restricted site, but in the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center opened to the public. Owned and operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society, the site has trails, exhibits, and offers tours by an archeologist on staff.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OK-37. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

"Caddo Fundamentals: Spiro and the Arkansas Basin," Texas Beyond History, (accessed December 15, Peterson, Dennis A., "Spiro Mounds," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, (accessed December 15, SPIRO MOUNDS SITE HALS. OK-37 PAGE 2 "Spiro Mound Group," National Register Nomination Form National Park Service, United Stated Department of the Interior. "Spiro Mounds: Prehistoric Gateway Present-day Enigma," Oklahoma Historical Society, (accessed December 15, "Spiro Mounds Site," Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, (accessed December 15, Merriam, Chris, "Spiro Mound," Decembers,

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OK-37. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Steve Eilers, December 15, West Stillwater, OK steve.eilers@okstate.edu Dr. Charles Leider Professor and Director of the Landscape Architecture Program Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department 360 AG Hall Stillwater, OK Office: charles.leiderfalokstate.edu SPIRO MOUNDS SITE HALS. OK-37 PAGE 3 -Mbfe''- i&l&w- ** ' . . . View of mounds (Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: accessed December 15, AS!ii ".js.i.rti!. yf^ fta^.'bff^'' View of mounds from trail (Explore Southern History: accessed December 15,