Spiro emerged around 1050 CE, rooted in two pyramid-building traditions: Arkansas's Plum Bayou and Louisiana's Coles Creek culture. Plum Bayou ceramics in the earliest layers of both Cahokia and Spiro suggest migration. After a ~1200 CE hiatus linked to Cahokia's decline, Spiro rebounded and peaked between 1250–1350 CE.
Spiro's origins tied to Plum Bayou and Coles Creek pyramid-building cultures
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Key facts
- Spiro was established by the same time as Cahokia began its major transformation around 1050 CE
- Plum Bayou, located in central Arkansas, had pre-Mississippian pyramids and may have inspired Cahokia
- Ceramics from Plum Bayou found in earliest levels of both Cahokia and Spiro support migration theory
- Spiro had a secondary influence from the Coles Creek culture of eastern Louisiana, which was also building pyramids
- Spiro's heritage comes from two previous pyramid-building cultures: Plum Bayou and Coles Creek
- Spiro had a marked hiatus around 1200 CE, connected to Cahokia's abandonment, but rebounded into its peak population between 1250 and 1350 CE
Sources
Plum Bayou Cultureencyclopediaofarkansas.net
Plum Bayou culture was a people who built religious centers with a formal arrangement of earthen platforms or mounds that bordered a ...
Plum Bayou Mounds National Historic Landmark Viewshedpreservearkansas.org
The Plum Bayou Mounds are one of the largest and most impressive archeological sites in the Mississippi River Valley. With 3 mounds on 100 acres,
Plum Bayou Research Station (Toltec Mounds)archeology.uark.edu
The Plum Bayou Mounds site was the religious, social, and political center for people of the Plum Bayou culture of central Arkansas. Built and occupied ...
Toltec Moundsatlasobscura.com
Some 1,400 years ago, the Indigenous peoples of the Plum Bayou culture came together to build earthen mounds in what is now known as Arkansas.
Plum Bayou Mounds Archeologicalsandylonghorn.com
The people who built these mounds were prehistoric Native Americans, not tied to any modern tribe. The site's inhabitation record spans from AD 650 – AD 1050,
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