Spiro Mounds

Illustration of Spiro Mounds from the west

Spiro Mounds is an archaeological site run by the Oklahoma Historical Society and open to the public. It is in Eastern Oklahoma, near the modern town of Spiro. It is one of the most important pre-Columbian sites in the United States.

Spiro Mounds Media

• 

  Engraved whelk shell from Spiro Mounds depicting a falcon warrior

• 

  A reconstructed house - grass-thatched roofs also were typical of the later, historic Wichita and Caddo cultures, but their houses were round with high-pitched roofs

• 

  Craig Mound, the Spiro burial mound that was referred to as the "Great Mortuary" by archaeologists conducting the early scientific research at the site

• 

  Anthropomorphic human headed avian plate from Spiro

• 

  Engraved shell gorget from Spiro Mounds - the striped-center-pole, or axis mundi, divides the image in half - the cross and circle motifs also have symbolic meanings

• 

  Spiro Mounds shell gorget with a central spider motif and a border of hands with bracelets - Woolaroc Museum

• 

  Map of the Caddoan Mississippian culture and some important sites

• 

  Effigy pipe of figure smoking from a frog effigy pipe, Missouri flint clay

• 

  Effigy pipe of a man smoking a pipe, Missouri flint clay

Other websites

• Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park Archived 2005-12-22 at the Wayback Machine