The Tyler site represents a two acre area now inundated by waters
of the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir. It was excavated in the 1960's
during salvage operations before the dam for the lake was completed.
Thirteen storage and trash pits, one burial and several postholes
were uncovered during the excavation. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal
from the pits has determined that the site was occupied in the early
1500's, probably just before extensive contacts by native Americans
of the Southeast and Southwest with Spanish explorers like DeSoto
and Coronado. Archaeologists have named this period which follows
the collapse of the great Spiro
Mounds center as the Fort Coffee phase.
Artifacts recovered from the Tyler
site. The deer rib bone rasp (upper part of the image)
may have been used as a musical instrument.
In the Fort Coffee phase, the centralized leadership of the mound
centers no longer holds sway over the outlying farming villages.
The close ties to other chiefdoms throughout the Southeast has given
way to more localized, independent communities.
The climate has changed so that less rainfall may make agriculture
riskier. Some traits common to the Plains areas to the west have
become more common at Fort Coffee phase sites including storage
pits like those found at Tyler and increasing use of bison. While
archaeologists do not understand all the changes occurring during
this period of Oklahoma's prehistory, research is continuing and
some interesting trends have been noticed.
In the earlier period, when the elite rulers of the area, first
at the Harlan site,
next at the Norman site
and then later at the Spiro site, controlled a centralized society,
rituals performed at the mound center are believed to have helped
maintain the aura of the ruling class's power. Important among these
ceremonies were smoking rituals. Tobacco was a sacred plant and
the pipes used during its smoking were elaborate. Effigy pipes and
T-shaped pipes were found almost exclusively at the mound centers.
A double-bowl T-shape pipe from the
During the Fort Coffee phase, the T-shaped pipes and effigy pipes
are no longer in use. They have been replaced by a simpler, smaller
elbow-shaped pipe. Dr. Robert Brooks, Oklahoma's state archaeologist,
has proposed that this change in pipe form reflects greater changes
in society between the two periods. The elbow pipes of the Fort
Coffee phase were passed from person to person in a smoking ceremony
(this kind of ceremony was documented during historic times for
various native American groups). Imagine, though, the difference
in a ritual involving one of the large effigy pipes. These pipes
were certainly not passed from person to person; rather, the individual
approached the pipe and partook of the tobacco. Or, with the T-shaped
pipes, perhaps a visiting dignitary from an outlying village was
allowed to smoke with a paramount ruler at the mound center thus
symbolically conferring power on that person.
A typical elbow pipe from LeFlore county
Two pipes of the simpler form were recovered at the Tyler site.
Although the site no longer exists since the excavations and later
inundation by the reservoir have destroyed it, the careful archaeology
completed in 1966 has left a legacy from which archaeologists will
be answering questions about Oklahoma prehistory for many years
into the future.
Burton, Robert J., Tyler Bastian, and Terry J. Prewitt,
"The Tyler Site" in Archaeological Site Report No.
13, Oklahoma River Basin Survey, University of Oklahoma Research
Institute, Norman, OK 1969