Spiro is a large group of mounds in eastern Oklahoma that is part of the Mississippian tradition of the American Midwest and Southeast. It appears to have been occupied by about A.D. 800 and mostly used between A.D. 1000 and 1450 before being abandoned. Between A.D. 1000 and 1200 it had connections with the great Mississippian center of Cahokia near St. Louis, Missouri, and artifacts traveled to Spiro.
In 1933, a group of treasure hunters formed the Pocola Mining Company, obtained a lease on the site, and began to systematically loot the burial mounds for saleable artifacts. No information was collected, and the looters took the most prized items on a train tour, billing the site as a new “King Tut’s Tomb.” Those artifacts are now scattered in 200 museums and countless private collections.
In 1937, archaeologists at the University of Oklahoma convinced the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) to fund a large-scale salvage excavation project at Spiro and at projects at more than 100 sites in Oklahoma. Some 259 people were employed by 1938. Authors Scott Hammerstedt and Amanda Regnier, archaeologists at the University of Oklahoma, draw on archival records and abundant photographs to tell the story of WPA archaeology in the state. It’s a fascinating account. Today, Spiro Mounds has been restored and is owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society. It is the only public archaeology site in the state.
