| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 39.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 39.3 | The History Cooperative

*Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb*. By David La Vere. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. ix + 255 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95, paper.)
Of all the Native American societies present before the arrival of Europeans, those of the Mississippian period (ca. CE 1000 to 1540) in the U. S. Southeast are widely acknowledged as the most socially complex. At sites such as Cahokia in Illinois, Moundville in Alabama, and Etowah in Georgia, enormous earthern mound complexes, which were built a basketful of dirt at a time, stand as testament to the industry of Mississippian chiefdoms.	1
The Spiro site in eastern Oklahoma is frequently mentioned among the preeminent Mississippian archaeological sites. Spiro, however, is less famous for the size of its mounds (which are relatively small) than for the quantity of exotic artifacts the site has produced. Uncontrolled digging by unemployed miners in the 1930s produced thousands of artifacts of shell, copper, ceramic, and stone.	2
Unfortunately, while other major Mississippian sites have benefited from the recent publication of books for, or at least accessible to, the lay public, such has not been the case for Spiro. Looting Spiro Mounds, by David La Vere, is an attempt to remedy this deficiency.	. . .

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