The new findings show the Spiro site as one of the premier trading and religious centers of prehistoric America. Situated in a narrow valley of the Arkansas River, the Spiroans were in a strategic position to control traffic, trade and communications along this waterway, especially between the small villages scattered among the Ouachita Mountains to the south and the Ozarks to the north. Both of these regions were rich in raw materials favored by the Spiro people. Not only did Spiro become an important center for Caddoan-speaking residents of eastern Oklahoma, but it also began to play a significant role in controlling trade and information between bison-hunting Plains farmers to the west and the numerous settled horticultural tribes in the Southeast. This development was enhanced by Spiro’s “gateway” position between the rolling grassy Plains and the wooded Southeast, as well as by the initiative of Spiro leaders. [Illustration: OU Electronic Media and Photo Services—Gilbert A. Jain] As certain Spiro inhabitants became political and religious leaders, they also became commercial entrepreneurs. To help identify their growing status in the community, these leaders accumulated exotic goods which they wore as status markers or used in special ceremonies. Among the most favored exotic goods were conch shells from western coastal Florida, copper from the Southeast and other regions, lead from Iowa and Missouri, pottery from northeast Arkansas and Tennessee, quartz from central Arkansas and flint from Kansas, Texas, Tennessee and southern Illinois. Spiro artisans fashioned many of these materials into elaborately decorated ornaments, ceremonial cups, batons and other symbols of status and authority. Among the prehistoric societies, such objects were a sign of wealth, and Spiro’s priestly leaders were among the most affluent of the time. Elaborate artifacts of conch and copper were more numerous at Spiro than at any other prehistoric site in North America. The Spiro site reached its peak as an inhabited ceremonial center between A.D. 900 and 1200 when the village and public buildings covered nearly 100 acres, with a sizeable village occupying an upland ridge and portions of the adjacent bottomlands. During this time, two sets of earthworks were constructed: one on the upland ridge which contained a ring of eight mounds erected over the remains of burned or dismantled special buildings, and one on the bottomlands where three mounds were built.