 Spiro Moundslocated
about seven miles outside Spiro, Oklahoma, is the only
Native American archaeological site in Oklahoma that is
open to the public. The site encompasses 150 acres of
land that includes twelve mounds, an elite village area,
and part of a support city.
  The main group of
six mounds form a circular grouping around an oval plaza
on the western side of the site. Another group is found
about a quarter mile to the east. The largest mound on
the site, known as "Brown Mound," slopes
steeply on three sides, and once had a walkway up the
southern side leading to a building at the top. That
building may have been used as a mortuary house, where
the dead were prepared for burial. "Spiro
Mound," the second-largest on the site, sits about
1,500 feet southeast of the main plaza. It is significant
for a cavity inside that is about 10 feet high and 15
feet wide, and which once held artifacts made of wood,
conch shell and copper, as well as baskets, woven
fabrics, lace, furs, and even feathers, all remarkably
well preserved. More than twenty other related village
sites are scattered within a five-mile radius of the main
site.
The Spiro Mounds site was occupied by
various groups over a span of 8,000 years, but was not
permanently occupied until 850 A.D. At that time Spiro
became the westernmost outpost of Mississippian culture,
which influenced an area from the Gulf of California to
the Gulf of Mexico and Virginia to the Great Lakes.
Native Americans within this extensive area were liked
primarily by trade. Lying on a major river (the Arkansas)
and located near the center of this trade network, Spiro
became an important site for the exchange of trade goods.
 Wealth derived
from this trade allowed Spiro chiefs to directly control
the religious and political life of villages several
hundred miles away, into present-day Arkansas, Missouri,
and Kansas.
 For reasons as yet
unknown, the mound center of Spiro was abandoned by about
1450, although the city was occupied into the early
1700's. The site lay undisturbed for over 200 years,
until being discovered and plundered by treasure hunters
in the 1930's. Many artifacts and skeletal remains were
destroyed, many others were carted off and sold, and at
least one burial chamber was actually dynamited, before
Oklahoma declared the site an archaeological treasure and
saved it from utter destruction. The University of
Oklahoma led WPA workers on a controlled excavation in
1936, and the Oklahoma Historical Society created the
Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in 1978.
Questions or comments about this
page?
Oklahoma Archaeological Survey. www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/counties/leflore.htm
Oklahoma Historical Society. www.okhistory.org/outreach/museums/spiromounds.html
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