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The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay

Photographs from the collection of Dr. Robert E. Bell

By Larry and Christopher Merriam

Colorful 8 1/2" X 11" Hardback Cover

400 High Quality Glossy pages

161 Full-Page B&W Photos

This book uses the latest interpretations to detail the history of this important Southeast Ceremonial Complex site. First person accounts from eye-witnesses, archaeologists, reporters, and the Pocolo Miners themselves help put the digging of the mound in its historical context.

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The full-color cover features an original painting of the mound as it might have looked 550 years ago after the site was abandoned. Three key Spiro artifacts are shown in color in the sky above the mound. These artifacts are also shown in color on the back cover (3 views of the Big Boy Pipe), inside front cover (nearly life-size version of the Bell-Townsend-Onken Blade) and inside back cover (the rarely pictured Alibates Mace from the Smithsonian collection).

The Introduction presents the history of the mound using new illustrations and maps to describe its construction between 950 to 1450 AD, its destruction between 1933 to 1941 and finally its reconstruction in the 1970s. The archaeological history of the mound is told using contemporary accounts to capture the realities of that time period (the Great Depression ).

The major portion of the book features 161 full-page B&W Photographs from the collection of Dr. Robert E. Bell with captions on each facing page. These pictures contain over 4000 artifacts, 3000 in one photo alone. The collection histories of the pictured artifacts are traced from the mound to their current location where data was available. Also shown are diggers, dealers and others associated with the mound during the excavations of the 1930s. The excavation photos of the mound each have a location map showing the direction the photographer was shooting. These maps also show the status of the excavation at the time of the photograph.

Many of these pictures have never been published before. Few have been shown in this full-page format. Eyewitness accounts from Dr. Bell, W. Guinn Cooper (one of the diggers), newspaper articles of the day and other early publications are presented together for the first time

The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay, by Larry G. Merriam and Christopher J. Merriam. Published by Merriam Station Books, 2004.

Larry and Chris Merriam's recently published book The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay will likely become an instant classic. The 406-page hardbound book reintroduces a 21st Century readership to the famous Spiro Mounds excavations that occurred in Eastern Oklahoma in the 1930's and early 1940's. So famous were the Spiro Mound excavations that a 1936 article in the Kansas City Star declared the site to be an American King Tut's tomb. The Spiro Mound complex was one of the great Mississippian ceremonial centers of its era.

In collaboration with Dr. Robert E. Bell, the Merriams have republished Dr. Bell's original black and white photographs that Dr. Bell took at the Spiro Mounds from 1933 through 1937. The 51 Bell photos serve as reliable documentation of the excavation and many of the extraordinary artifacts found at the site. Bell was one of those rare adventurers who recognized the unique opportunity to document the tribute offerings recovered from the site. In addition to Dr. Bell's annotated photographs, the Merriams have also published the various excavation accounts as told by contemporary writers and diggers, including Dr. Robert Bell, Dr. Forest Clements, Guinn Copper, A. B. MacDonald and others.

Dr. Bell's collaboration on the Merriams' book serves as an important acknowledgement to the book's accuracy and reliability. The annotated photographs share key ownership information for Spiro objects now in public and private collections. The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay is an invaluable reference tool for modern-day Spiro enthusiasts and collectors because Dr. Bell's photos preserve a record of authentic objects actually found at the site. Never before has a photographic record been so necessary to verify the authenticity of Spiro artifacts.

Review of
"The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay" by Larry and Christopher Merriam, photographs from the collection of Dr. Robert E. Bell

One of the turning points in North American archaeology has long been both reviled and loved by collectors and archaeologists alike- the Spiro Mounds of Oklahoma. This large ceremonial complex and the associated activities of the ancient Spiroans, plus the early destructive searches of modern man and the reactions of professionals of the time, all shaped the beginnings of archaeological law as we know it. The Pocola Mining Company dug out the Spiro Mounds for the relics, and in the process helped define legality, morality, property rights, and burial laws, definitions that continue to effect archaeological law even seventy years later. Ancient Spiro shaped early American archaeology.
Modern archaeologists and collectors alike can now look back at the prehistory of this fantastic ancient site, through the eyes of the Pocola diggers and through the photographs taken by Dr. Robert Bell of not only the site as it was dug, but also of the phenomenal ceremonial artifacts that were uncovered back in the 1930's. Dr. Bell was but a young man when he first viewed the Pocola "mines", and they struck a chord with him that drove his lifetime of learning as a professional archaeologist. He saw the tremendous wealth of information that was being lost by mining for relics, and that prompted him to record and photograph all he could of the site and the artifacts found there. The information lost and damage caused also prompted stronger laws in Oklahoma (and elsewhere) that today protect significant sites nationwide.
Chris and Larry Merriam have done a superb job of gathering the scattered information from Spiro, using eyewitness interviews, old photographs, and the amazing relics themselves to create an historical document that goes well beyond the average coffee-table relic book. Chapters include the prehistory of Spiro, the earliest history of excavations there, and the vast activities of the Pocola Mining Company during the Great Depression years. The authors continue on into the WPA excavations and the beginnings of the Oklahoma Archaeological Society, and include a detailed bibliography of past publications on the Spiro Mounds.
Perhaps most impressive is the wealth of illustrations of the mounds and excavations, and the hundreds of vintage photographs from Dr. Bell's albums that have never before been published. Most of the finest artifacts found at Spiro, now in museums worldwide, are shown as they were being brought out for sale by the miners, laid on newspapers and blankets amidst the dust of the trenches.
This important historical reference book of this significant ceremonial center is one that collectors of ancient artifacts will want to have in their libraries. The information it contains is unique in that it details the mysterious prehistory as well as the turbulent history of modern man's activities there. Students of archaeology can discover in this book the beginnings of the discipline as it was in its educational infancy.
Most importantly, "The Spiro Mound-A Photo Essay", shows professionals and collectors alike our common bond in the evolution of the science of archaeology- that human curiosity that drives our quest for knowledge about the unique artifacts and lifeways of the ceremonial people of the Spiro Mounds. This new book deserves a place on the shelves of all artifact collectors and archaeologists, as a prehistoric/historic document of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Figure 12: The Tribute Points Frame

Mr. Schellenberger of Dardanelle, Arkansas originally assembled this outstanding frame of 205 bird points from Spiro. Robert E. Bell took this picture in April 1935. The picture was shown to Mr. Schwem who managed the local S.S. Kresge's 5 & 10 store in Bell's hometown of Marion, Ohio. (Kresge's became K Mart.) Although he was not a collector, he asked Bell to purchase the frame for him. Bell arranged the transaction and, for $100, the frame was obtained.

Later. Mr. Schwem sold his frame and it was obtained by Dr. C. J. Bondley of Bell Center, Ohio, his brother Elmer, a postal worker in Marion, Ohio, and three others individuals. The frame was then sold to Irvin Dougherty of Fremont, Indiana. It is shown in Who's Who #1, published in 1960, on page 30. Mr. Dougherty valued the frame at $1200. He sold the frame to Richard K. Meyers of Peoria, Illinois. The frame later sold to Tony Stein of Kansas City, Missouri. Pieces from the frame are now known to be in the collections of Tony Stein, Steve Granger, Steve Lyons, Roy Hathcock, Rodney Fant, Kent Patterson and others. Several points from this frame can be seen in the "Prehistoric American" Volume XXXVII
Number 3, 2003.

The twenty Tribute (Craig) points that make up the center design of the frame are part of a cache of maybe 25 points. One other example is located on the outside circle of points in this frame, at the bottom of the picture near the middle. Two other Tribute points have been shown in Figures 9 and 10, thereby accounting for 23 of a reported 25 examples. These are large, thin, well-made tri-notched points with serrations common around the base. They are certainly some of the finest bird points from Spiro or anywhere else. The first picture taken of this frame by Robert Bell was in Spring 1934. That means the Tribute points were recovered early in the digging and had to come from the lesser cones of The Spiro Mound and not the Hollow Chamber of the Main Cone (the Great Temple Mound) . Tribute points have been named Craig points after the Craig Mound (The current name for The Spiro Mound.) by Gregory Perino in Volume 3 (2002) of his Projectile Points and Preforms hardback books. We like the old name Tribute points and will continue to use it in this text.

Photograph 18: Summer 1935, looking Southwest: Diggers at the entrance into the large cone

Dr. Bell did not take this photograph since he did not visit the mound while the tunnels into the main cone were open. He had received a message telling him they were finding spectacular artifacts from the large cone and that he should hurry down to the site. However, at home in Ohio, young Robert Bell had been in an accident that disabled his truck and he didn&rsquot have the money to get it repaired. It would be the following April, in 1936, before Robert Bell, his father, mother and nephew would be able to make the trip. By that time, the Pocola Mining Company lease had expired and the tunnels had been closed by dynamite. (See Photographs 19-21.) This photograph has been credited to H. T. Daniel by some sources.

This picture was taken in the summer of 1935, looking into the main tunnel into the large or Great Mortuary Cone. The second, smaller tunnel to the left may be for ventilation. The people in the photograph are believed to be John Hobbs with an unknown person on the right, and the McKenzies on the left. John Hobbs stated the main tunnel was on the northeast side of the large cone. (See Hamilton 1, Plates 4 and 5.) Therefore, this photograph is looking to the southwest at the northeast side of the mound.

From the photograph, all of the trees on the mound are on the right side of the photograph or the east side of the mound. The left, or north, side of the mound is barren of trees. If we compare this observation with Photographs 6, 8 and 9, they show that most of the trees are on the east side of the mound, which would be on the left side of this photograph. This confirms that the main tunnel is on the northeast side of the main cone. The discussion with Photograph 21 also confirms this location for the main tunnel. Hamilton, who visited the mound during the first two weeks of the WPA digging, also placed the tunnel on the northeast side of the main cone.