Questions of preservation after ancient village found in downtown Miami

Questions of preservation after ancient village found in downtown Miami

At the heart of a $600 million complex of Miami condominium and office towers, a network of holes in the ground has provided new insight into the people who were there first.
The holes lay out the foundations of a prehistoric settlement of the ancient Tequesta tribe at the confluence of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. The Tequesta lived in what's now metro Miami until the 1700s, and the holes held pine posts that framed their thatched buildings.

"We got to the point in recent months where we realized this wasn't an isolated circle or structure but a whole complex of buildings," said archaeologist Bob Carr, whose company was hired to conduct a historical analysis of the building site. The settlement is likely to have been home to hundreds of people, perhaps as many as 1,000.

"In some ways, I would say it's probably the best-preserved prehistoric town plan in eastern North America," Carr said.

This is so cool!

In my neighborhood there are many artifacts of the Hopewell culture - in fact, a high-rise public-housing tower was built RIGHT ON TOP of a historical, registered archaeology site due due an "oversight" in the red-tape office.

Shameful.

The Tequesta lived in south Florida for roughly 2,000 years, Carr said. But they had disappeared by the time Britain took control of Florida from the Spanish in 1763, with the remnants of their population believed to have migrated to Cuba, he said.

Here's some more on the Tequesta people:
[

The archaeological record of the Glades culture, which included the area occupied by the Tequestas, indicates a continuous development of an indigenous ceramics tradition from about 700 BCE until after European contact.[7] The Tequesta language may have been closely related to the language of the Calusas of the southwest Florida coast and the Mayaimis who lived around Lake Okeechobee in the middle of the lower Florida peninsula.

There are only ten words from the languages of those tribes for which meanings were recorded.[8] The Tequesta were once thought to be related to the Taino, the Arawakan people of the Antilles, but most anthropologists now doubt this, based on archaeological information and the length of their establishment in Florida. Carl O. Sauer called the Florida Straits "one of the most strongly marked cultural boundaries in the New World", noting that the Straits were also a boundary between agricultural systems, with Florida Indians growing seed crops that originated in Mexico, while the Lucayans of the Bahamas grew root crops that originated in South America.[9]

In doing a search, I found nothing re this article, and only a few hits on the word "Tequesta" - but nothing about this.

I'm going to post this, then go dig around some more! (Although I suspect Slayer may already know all about these folks - I just love to imagine making some awesome 'archaeological finds', and this culture is news to me!)

Here's from an external site maintained by Florida Heritage:Miami Circle Historical info

2,500 - 500 years ago

By 2,500 years ago the inhabitants of the Everglades and adjacent coastal areas had begun making simple, undecorated ceramic vessels and soon after added an array of simple geometric designs. Archaeologists recognized that the so-called Glades pottery designs changed through time and could be used to date the age of sites. Despite subtle changes in pottery it is likely that the inhabitants of southeastern Florida at 2,500 years ago are the ancestors of the Tequesta Indians who met Ponce de Leon some one thousand years later.

The info on the site goes back to 10,000 years ago.

www.pbchistoryonline.org...

Archaeologists working at the mouth of the Miami River have discovered a prehistoric circle cut into bedrock. The feature measuring 38 feet in diameter, is the only site of this type known to exist in Florida. Twenty or so irregular basins and several hundred smaller “postholes” form a perfect circle that is clearly visible when viewed from above. Artifacts found at the site indicate that it was occupied for approximately 2,000 years by a Native American group known as the Tequesta.

[Above is] an aerial view of the Miami Circle. It is almost 38' in diameter.

The Miami Circle site is part of a larger village that existed across the river and may have served as the focus of religious and political activity, as well as a trading center.

Exploiting the rich marine and coastal environment along Biscayne Bay allowed the development of a complex social chiefdom without an agricultural base. This group shares the distinction of being one of only two groups to do so in North America.

I've seen the Tequesta' Circle when I lived down there, they called it 'Miami's Stonehenge'

wildtimes
www.pbchistoryonline.org...

Archaeologists working at the mouth of the Miami River have discovered a prehistoric circle cut into bedrock. The feature measuring 38 feet in diameter, is the only site of this type known to exist in Florida. Twenty or so irregular basins and several hundred smaller “postholes” form a perfect circle that is clearly visible when viewed from above. Artifacts found at the site indicate that it was occupied for approximately 2,000 years by a Native American group known as the Tequesta.

[Above is] an aerial view of the Miami Circle. It is almost 38' in diameter.

The Miami Circle site is part of a larger village that existed across the river and may have served as the focus of religious and political activity, as well as a trading center.

Exploiting the rich marine and coastal environment along Biscayne Bay allowed the development of a complex social chiefdom without an agricultural base. This group shares the distinction of being one of only two groups to do so in North America.

Could that maybe looked like this? link to site www.jaxhistory.com...

"The point of it is to create knowledge -- not just to save things but to understand them," Stearns said. The company's plan would allow the public to learn more about the site than they would if the site were simply preserved as is, as another Tequesta site nearby -- the "Miami Circle," identified in 1998 -- has been, he said.

No sir, your just worried about how much cash your going to loose.


Cool find! I didn't not know about them.

reply to post by chiefsmom

The Tequesta used shells and sharks' teeth for a variety of tools. These included hammers, chisels, fishhooks, drinking cups, and spearheads. Sharks' teeth were used to carve out logs to make canoes.

During the 1500s, Europeans began arriving in Florida. At first, the Tequesta did not welcome these new visitors. But before long, the Europeans won their friendship by bringing gifts of colored cloth, knives, and rum.

The Tequesta numbered about 800, but they started to die out as a result of settlement battles, slavery, and disease. By the 1800s, the Tequesta tribe had only a few survivors.

fcit.usf.edu...

(sorry these last couple of posts are from sites for teachers and students - quite elementary - but, still some interesting factoids. At least it's reassuring that it's being taught to them!! Right? Silver lining!! O_o )

Yeppers! The good ole' Europeans, came over and made nicey-nice, then decimanted 'em. Sick. And we wonder how things got to be the way they are today

Sometimes I really wish my ancestors had stayed where they belonged - Scandinavia, Poland, Germany, and the British Isles...
but then again - they were being enslaved/slaughtered where they were....
and had to leave just to survive.
it just always comes full circle, doesn't it?

Anyway - sorry for going off-topic, but yeah, chiefsmom, it's always just "the money we'll lose" - just the other day I was reading about predictions that cancer death rates are going to skyrocket - and all the article was concerned with was "how much it cost society" - in Billions of Dollars.

sigh

reply to post by EyesOpenMouthShut


Yep! That's a pic from the same page as the aerial view I have above. Thanks for contributing!

EDIT: Wait, no it isn't! I clicked on the quoted link, not your jaxhistory link! The pic you posted is about the Timuca people, and the caption says:

This picture of a Timucua village is about 400 years old. There are at least two things wrong with it: First, there were no mountains in Florida. Second, fences or palisades probably didn't surround Timucua villages. The depiction of an enclosure runs counter to most of the evidence uncovered by historians & archaeologists.

So....I don't know - at least they're both round!


I like how they say on the quoted link: "Did you know the Tequesta Indians ate Manatee? It's true. We're not sure, but we think they taste like chicken"

LOL!

Great work.This is where ATS shinesSo they didn't need a large agricultural base(farming)and received enough sustenance from sea life.Amazing!

We seem to build our cities on top of ancient settlements. I suppose it's because the ancient people had the best sites. There could be ancient sites right in under your yard. Think about this next time you are putting in your garden when you find a strange rock. Don't let it drive you to archeologists because they will destroy your ability to put in your garden. just move the weird rocks out and place them around your garden so people can see them. Free one of a kind landscaping stones. If you think you will get rich, you're wrong, it isn't cheap to get a site evaluation and get them verified...anyone could have collected them before you and put them in a row.

reply to post by rickymouse

Think about this next time you are putting in your garden when you find a strange rock.

Exactly! The reason I got interested in the Hopewell culture was when I found, while digging for my garden, a stone tool -
a flint tool, shaped like a big fat I, flat on both ends, but from the side, one end thicker than the other - which was fluted and otherwise 'chiseled' into a tool.

I took it to my local Natural History museum for assessment (my husband had told me it was a boy scout exercise in flint-knapping, but I didn't think so) - the lady told me it was about 25,000 years old!!!

I still have it - and also an iron ball about the size of a tennis ball - not quite perfectly round; and looked up info on such objects. It appears to be 'grape shot' from the Civil War (in the US) - during which lots of activity took place right here (Kansas/Missouri free-state/slave-state conflict). I grew up in Lawrence, KS, the site of Quantrill's raid - (even worked at a tavern called "Quantrill's Saloon" when I was *cough* eighteen - yeah, we could drink beer at 18 in my state).....

anyway - yes, I love putting in gardens, just for the 'amateur archaeology' experience - digging stuff up rocks!! (heh - pun intended).

reply to post by TDawg61


Glad you enjoyed it!!!

Thanks for participating. There is SO MUCH we still don't know - have you ever read the book "Sarum"?

reply to post by wildtimes


It sure is fun digging up things like that. I have to follow a row of rocks next year buried under the ground. I think there are mosiaced rock pieces on top like the one I found near the old spring. There always seems to be broken rock at the top of these rows of rock in the clay loam and nothing anywhere else. I have a turkey mosiac I found half falling off a squared off rock. I had to learn more of these things before I could start digging more, I don't want to destroy them, I want to preserve them. I could say I carved these rocks if I wanted and take the credit for the art. Nobody would believe me though, I am no rock artist and I would have to sand off the patina.

reply to post by rickymouse


You know - a few months ago I was visiting my ex (yes, we are friends), and he had this incredible rock thing he dug up in his yard (used to be "our" yard - but that's beside the point).....

it was shaped roughly like a shoe-horn - obviously a tool of some kind. He doesn't keep 'guns' or weapons, but he thought it would be useful to bean someone upside the head in the event of an attack. I looked up the 'shape' on the internet - perhaps it was an axe - without it's handle.

Interesting stuff...
but, yeah, your stone hammer came to mind - and now every time I see your avi I think about that weird rock.

reply to post by wildtimes


I believe that shape is called a "gouge ", and was used in hollowing out things like logs for canoes. You'd cut down a tree, set a fire on it, and then scrape out the burnt charcoal (rather than trying to cut wood) with it until you had a dugout canoe.

reply to post by nenothtu


Interesting!
Thanks for the link to the images.

The thing he has was really big, though, and not sharp. Smooth edges all round... Probably as big as a man's size 5 shoe...

the tool that I found was smaller, and flint-knapped to have serrated edges like some of the smaller tools pictured on the page you linked.

I wasn't sure what it was for - someone told me it was a "scraper" - but that was the same person who told me it was a boy scout project..

o_O

reply to post by wildtimes


A scraper is a word used in artifact collecting. Lots of things needed scraping, and some rock tools were good for doing that. The Miami find is very nice, and hopefully it's kept and further expanded. You can't walk around some areas of Rome without coming upon protected sites, and America should surely do that with any native Indian site that can be preserved.