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Points and vessels from late Caddo, 1200-1500 A.D.
In the territory now known as Northeastern Oklahoma there are the remains of a community that can be traced to 700 – 1500 A.D., approximately, where Caddo lived and made a village. The civilization located there seems to have vanished at a time when drought has proved to have made it hard to live. Visiting there today, we still can see the mounds where they buried their dead, and ceremonial patterns that show their observance of the sun’s role in their culture.
From the top of Brown Mound, the center of the former village, the sun rising on the Solstice will hit the top of another, former chief”s, burial mound. It varies with the season, but shows the use of the sun’s appearance to establish the position of the dweller in the mound to appear as the chosen of the sun gods. The solstice is sometimes celebrated in the present, and visitors get the chance to see the sun’s rays do as the ancients intended.
The relics excavated from the burial mounds have been scattered in large part, because early archaeologists were more interested in profit than history. The end of digging up and selling Caddo relics came before they all were lost, and some appear in museums throughout the state and farther away.
On a visit to the Museum of the Red River in Idabel, OK, I was pleased to find points and carved relics from the Caddo who occupied the Spiro area.
 Brown Mound, center ceremonial site at Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma |
 Shell carved with Snake dancer, Spiro Mounds Caddo. |
15 Comments
Several pictures here of the Spiro Mounds area of OK, https://picasaweb.google.com/RCalvo8/MemorialDayWeekend2011#5614075099906014818
Thanks Ruth. I’m trying to imagine the significance of the sea shell with the effigy carving. Would have represented quite the gift to some person and the very beginnings of an art culture started by mound builders across the water ways of North America. Odd that Caddo is some distance from a water source on a map so good soil had to play a part to it’s early inhabitants. Coffee’s ready here.
Thanks. Actually, my understanding is that, on the nearby river there was a natural trade route and that sea shells would have come up from the Gulf, been traded for pelts and the like. Fascinating that there were cultures trading with each other, somewhat like the Silk Road in the Middle East, to Mongolia.
One day Ogg traded rocks with Nog and the corporate world was on it’s way.
Well, if one of them fooled the other into taking less than he got.
Ruth, you visit so many wonderful places and bring the rest of us up to date. You are probably familiar with these books, but I’ll mention them anyway. One is 1491 by Charles Mann. He discusses the Caddo in one of his sections. Another book, which may be more controversial, is The Lost Empire of Atlantis. In the book he discusses how the Atlanteans may well have mined copper out of the Great Lakes region and how they may have traveled up the Mississippi to do that. Of course, it was a couple of thousand years before the Caddo.
Thanks, I will look at those, and no, am not familiar with them. Of course, our friend spudtruckowner is archaeologically aware, brought up doing digs, and often reminds me that what the Europeans called one tribe name or another actually are descendants of other cultures, going back over time. We have Viking related explorers’ graffiti in OK, as well.
Yes. For instances: the gray-eyed Mandan in the north-central plains, and the Kennewick man skeleton that predates Indians in the state of Washington. A book that I read on the history of Roanoke indicates that the women and most of the children were incorporated into Indian tribes further south while the men were made slaves.
The tragedy of some of the native tribe’s slave ownership is playing out today, as membership in those tribes is not routinely granted to former slaves who are also tribes’ descendants. You will find this book interesting too; http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/340446.Our_Land_Before_We_Die
What an interesting post. Sea shells that apparently were such a curiosity and wonderment that they were trade goods. No real exchange cost for the pelts. Finding points is such a thrill. Thanks, Ruth.
I saw some pieces about that in the news not too long ago.
Thanks, I’m going to the library right now.
Appreciate that you enjoy the posts, it’s always a real joy to find out more about our tribes.
Sorry to be the EPU comment, but really enjoyed the post, Ruth. The pottery vessels appear beautifully etched or engraved.
Glad you came by, and that you enjoy these beautiful artifacts.