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Craig Mound, the Spiro burial mound that was referred to as the "Great Mortuary" by archaeologists conducting the early scientific research at the site. Craig Mound—also called "The Spiro Mound"—is the second-largest mound on the site and the only burial mound. It is located approximately 1,500 feet (460 m) southeast of the plaza.
Also called the "Great Mortuary", it is the second-largest mound on the site and the only burial mound. A hollow chamber that began as a burial structure for Spiro's rulers became a cavity within the mound, about 10 feet (3.0 m) high and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, and allowed for almost perfect preservation of fragile artifacts made of wood, conch ...
The name of the park was changed to Mound State Monument and was opened to the public in 1939. During a 1980 break-in at the Erskine Ramsay Archaeological Repository at Moundville, 264 pottery vessels, one fifth of the vessel collection curated by the Alabama Museum of Natural History, were stolen.
Artifacts found in "The Great Mortuary" (Craig Mound) at the Spiro site included colored flint from New Mexico, copper from the Great Lakes area, conch (or lightning whelk) shells from the Gulf Coast, and mica from the Carolinas. [5] Other materials from trade included wood, basketry, woven fabric, lace, fur, feathers, and carved stone statues.
The Great Mortuary, as the hollow interior has since become known to archaeologists, was a burial structure for Spiro's rulers. It was created as a circle of sacred cedar posts sunk in the ground and angled together at the top like a tipi. The cone-shaped chamber was covered with layers of earth to create the mound, and it never collapsed.
This mound, called Tumulus MM (for "Midas Mound"), was excavated in 1957 by a team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum, led by Rodney Young and his graduate students. Among the many fine bronze artifacts recovered from the wooden burial chamber were 170 bronze vessels, including numerous "omphalos bowls", and more than 180 bronze ...
The oldest mound associated with the Woodland period was the mortuary mound and pond complex at the Fort Center site in Glade County, Florida. Excavations and dating in 2012 by Thompson and Pluckhahn show that work began around 2600 BCE, seven centuries before the mound-builders in Ohio.
The Hopewell artisans were expert carvers of pipestone, and many of the mortuary mounds are full of exquisitely carved statues and pipes. [15] Excavation of the Mound of Pipes at Mound City found more than 200 stone smoking pipes; these depicted animals and birds in well-realized three-dimensional form. [16]