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Spiro Mounds

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Description


Spiro Mounds

Spiro Mounds (34 LF 40) is an important Mississippian archaeological site located in what is now Eastern Oklahoma. It lies near the Arkansas River seven miles north of the town of Spiro. Between the 800s and 1400s CE, the Spiro people created a powerful religious and political center based on the model of Mississippian Culture that thrived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries at that period. Spiro is considered the western-most outpost of Mississippian culture. In the 1930s, looters tunneled into Craig Mound -- the second-largest mound on the site -- to mine it for artifacts, exposing a hollow burial chamber inside, a unique feature containing some of the most extraordinary pre-Columbian artifacts ever found in North America. The looters sold the artifacts they recovered to art collectors, some as far away as Europe. Archaeologists later recovered some looted objects, though some have never been accounted for. This site has been significant for North American archaeology since the 1930s, especially for defining the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a significant feature of Mississippian Culture. Spiro Mounds is under the protection of the Oklahoma Historical Society, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [4]

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