Spiro's artistry forms a significant portion of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. During its Cahokia ties, Braden style copper and shell pieces depicted warriors and Thunderbirds. Later came carved Gulf shells featuring monsters and underwater panthers, a remarkable antlered wooden mask, and 30 bird-carved copper axes.
Spiro produced complex Mississippian art central to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
USAArt
Site mentioned
Key facts
- During its connection to Cahokia, Spiro produced art in the Braden style, mostly copper and shell pieces depicting warriors and Thunderbirds
- After outliving Cahokia, Spiro carved marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico with varied subject matter including monsters, pawsaws, and underwater panthers
- An amazing wooden mask with deer antlers was found at Spiro
- A collection of 30 axes with copper heads and wooden handles carved as birds was found
- Stone effigy weapons including axes and maces were produced as grave goods at Spiro
- Spiro's iconography forms a significant portion of what is called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), with art themes spreading to Etowah and Moundville, sometimes as shells imported from Spiro itself
Sources
(PDF) Cahokia and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexresearchgate.net
Cahokia is the early birthplace of the Braden art style. Definition of the Braden style is derived from Spiro engraved shell cups, Eddyville- ...
The sourcing and interpretation of Cahokia-style figurines ...academia.edu
Cahokia was the primary source of Cahokia-style figurines, made from Missouri flint clay. PIMA technology identified the stone source as Missouri flint clay ...
The Emergence of an Art Style and Associated Cultrual ...archeology.uark.edu
The Classic Braden style at Spiro gave rise during the fourteenth century to the Craig style of artistic representation, reflecting a fusion of Cahokian and ...
AMS Dates on Artifacts of the Southeastern Ceremonial ...jstor.org
by JA Brown · 1999 · Cited by 14 — 1275) placement of the Braden A style at Cahokia. (Brown and Kelly 1999). Three other plates in the same gravelot of broadly similar design structure have ...
Exhibitspiromounds.com
Cahokia was also the likely epicenter of an artistic tradition referred to as Braden. Braden is a highly refined artistic style known for its representation ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.