Craig-Style Iconography

Abstract

The late prehistoric engraved shell art of Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma has long been separated into two traditions, Braden and Craig. Braden represents a more naturalistic and figural style, similar in certain respects to broader patterns of representational Mississippian art in other mediums across the southeastern US. Craig, by contrast, is the more distinctive and characteristic form found at Spiro and related sites in the trans-Mississippi South; it is marked by robust and schematized designs that seem to denote rather than depict details of figures and their accoutrements. This chapter for an exhibition catalogue reviews the iconography of the Craig style, and places it into a broader social context.