Shell Disc Beads. D: 1" each Spiro Mounds Le Flore Co., OK.	Shell Barrell Beads. D: .75" each Spiro Mounds Le Flore Co., OK.

The Mississippians were great fanciers of shell, pearl, copper and stones beads. From the carved images on engraved shell gorgets and reports of beads found at archaeological excavations, it is clear that beads were a common and favored form of decoration with both men and women in Mississippian times. Beads have been found throughout all the Mississippians lands. As aboriginal peoples, the Mississippians seemed to love their beads. The most common of all beads was the shell bead. Made from various types of fresh and salt-water shelled animals, the Mississippians developed several types of shell beads. The Mississippians wore shell beads around their necks, in their hair, around their waists and legs. One excavation from Mound 72 at Cahokia revealed a burial on a single adult male with what must have been a leather cape covered with thousands of shell disc beads. Other shell beads include casket beads, thin barrel beads and finger bone beads, which are so named since they were carved to look like a human finger bone.

The fresh water pearl bead may have been the Mississippians' most valued possession. When de Soto and his men first began marauding through the present-day Southeast United States, de Soto’s chroniclers recorded accounts of Mississippian chiefs attempting to buy off de Soto’s army from attacking their villages by offering pearls as tribute. Apparently the Mississippians valued their pearls above all other possessions. Of course, de Soto promptly accepted the fresh water pearls as tribute and proceeded to destroy the villages anyway. The most prolific site that has produced fresh water pearls beads is Spiro. It was reported by the Spiro diggers that they found approximately two buckets full of pearl beads in the Great Chamber. A strand of Spiro fresh water pearls beads is indeed a rare treasure. They often still exhibit great luster and brilliance.

Shell Finger Bone Beads. L: .75" each Spiro Mounds Le Flore Co., OK.	Shell Beads. D: .5" each Spiro Mounds Le Flore Co., OK.	Pearl Beads. D: up to .25" Spiro Mounds Le Flore Co., OK.

Although much rarer and perhaps less preferred by the Mississippians were the stone and copper beads. A few stone and copper beads have been recorded from Spiro, but they may have been less favored since stone and copper beads are heavier than shell and pearl beads, and with hundreds used by the wearer, it may have been too great a weight to wear.