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Spiro History

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direct contact (White, 227). Not unlike this history of difficult questions with little concrete answers, the evidence at Spiro history is just as winding. Spiro is a compromised site. Much of its integrity is breached by artifact hunters, yet the lone obsidian scraper has a providence to add to the integrity of the find. Obtained in 1935 by J.G. Braecklein at Craig Mound, the artifact is donated to the Smithsonian. Here it sat in the collection. In 2002, Alex W. Barker et al, reports on the results of an energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence on the scraper. The results trace the source of the obsidian in Hidalgo, Mexico where the Pachuca obtained their obsidian, (Barker, 103).
While the archaeological record of material culture does not …show more content…

Unique goods such as use of macaw feathers (Minnis,271), copper bells (2Noble, 29), and many other examples not used in this work such as cacao, (Washburn, 1635) and the appearance of the Hero Twins on Mimbre pottery, (2.Thompson,1) establishes this in the archaeological record of the American Southwest. As well as the uses of such items show the importance and value given to them. The contact, and influence of this contact, shapes a region, and the contribution of maize cultivation shapes a continent.
While this contact is definite in the American Southwest, there is still questions in the Southeast. The assumption of contact and influence is in the commonalities that imply contact with the two spheres in the Southeastern cultures. With comes many differencing resources and theories of what this influence is, educated, and sometimes uneducated. Unlike Hohokam ballcourts, finding commonality in the artifacts does not prove Mesoamerican influence in the Mississippian culture. Hohokam ballcourts are found in relationship with artifacts that have been sourced from Mesoamerican directly. This sets a reasonable precedent for their influence. In the lines of, “In the archaeology”, (Dr. Sellet), archaeologist need to set a neutral presentation of the artifacts, and look to local and regional traditions in the archaeological record …show more content…

The Watson Brake Mound Complex, located in Louisiana, has been dated to 5400 years ago. This mound building tradition in the reaches far back into the Archaic. At Watson Brake, there is no evidence of cultivation, no evidence of long distance trade, yet here sits the oldest mound structure of a more hunter-gather type of society with no influence of the Mesoamerican sphere, (Pringle,1). Another site lies in Poverty Point, Louisiana, about 3500 years old, a record of 800 years of mound building occurring in the Late Archaic. There is little artefactual evidence of material goods such as pottery, and cultivation tools that lead to an agricultural society with the exception of unique clay balls thought to be used for cooking are found here, which show no impact made by Mesoamerica, (Ortmann, 675).
In discussions of mound building in the region, the Adena and Hopewell cultures of the Woodland period, starting around 1000 BCE, cannot be forgotten. Preceding the Mississippian culture, these groups have set a foundation that the Mississippian culture could have easily followed. Their earthen works stretch all the way to Crystal River, Florida, (Kemp,vii) , are seen in the Appalachian Mountains, and most notably along the Ohio Valley, (Bernardini,331). All these sites hold the possibility of influence on the Mississippian mound

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