Artifacts from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma, by April K. Sievert (oversized TPB, published by the Smithsonian Institute, 228 pages, $7, which is 1/3 the internet price.)
The Mississippian prehistoric culture built earthen mound burials from AD 900 till 1450. Mound construction ceased when the Miss. chiefdom culture declined due to either environmental change, or with the ceasing of trade with cultures to the east.
Whites discovered the mounds in 1916, and an Oklahoma Historical Society historian did the first excavations. The owners of the land allowed no one else onto the site until 1933, when they leased it to six men. Anthropologists found out what the "miners" were up to, and got the state legislature to stop them. The miners decided to go ahead anyway, using tunnels as a way to reach the artifacts more quickly. Relic dealers arrived in droves to buy anything from the "King Tut Tomb in the Arkansas Valley". To add to their sins, the miners dynamited the tunnels after they were done.
The next people to dig at Craig Mound were members of the WPA. Then the site was again ignored until the 1960s when it was slated to be used as a dump site for dam construction rubble. Anthropologists protested, and the state leased the land.
Many of the artifacts, though, were already gone, or destroyed earlier by the looting. Dealers had sold the loot to collectors, who later turned around and started either selling or gifting their collections to the Smithsonian. Hmmm... This presented an ethical problem. Should the Smithsonian accept the artifacts, or not? To accept them meant accepting stolen property. To not accept them meant the public would never see them. Being practical, the Smithsonian said yes. Then the problem was what to do with the objects that came without information on where they had been found, or what else had been located with them. Luckily the looters had left behind many less intact items, so it was possible to put together some information.
This is not just a problem of the past. Where ever relics are found, looters are never far behind, and few sites can be continuously protected. We can only be grateful for the honesty of the British farmer who notified officials that he had found amazing stuff in his field.
This is an amazing book, with detailed photos, drawings and descriptions, along with a catalog summary, of the items in the Smithsonian collection. (I was truly surprised by the number of engraved conch shells! I was disappointed that there were very few figures, but there were a lot of ear spools. So much for the young's assumption that the newest fad is really the newest thing.)
You can find this book in the new NF section, avail. 2/1. (Eventually: archaeol.)
