Addressing the Cosmological Significance of a Pot: A Search for Cosmological Structure in the Craig Mound

Abstract

Ceramic vessels and cosmological structure at first may seem quite unrelated. Many argue the basic and perhaps only function of a pot was a simple human-made container which held foodstuff for cooking and serving purposes. Pre-Contact communities also used ceramics to display complex iconography, some of which may represent important cosmological meanings in time and space. For this paper, I examine the temporal and spatial placement of pottery in 98 Craig Mound burials at the Spiro site in search for cosmological patterns in the imagery of the vessels. Only burials unassociated with the Great Mortuary and the Spirit Lodge were considered, because they have been seriously understudied. Spatial and temporal patterns that emerged from this study suggest burials outside of the Great Mortuary and the Spirit Lodge were also placed in specific areas of the Craig Mound to represent a cosmogram or a ritual display that expressed an important cosmological narrative.