Archaeological findings from about 8,000 years ago put to rest notion Miami has no history
As world cities go, Miami may seem a youngster. But buried evidence of thousands of years of prehistoric human settlement lies just under the concrete and asphalt at the spot where the modern city was founded, along the mouth of the Miami River.
That evidence is once again coming to light, in ever-greater quantity and antiquity, as teams of archaeologists excavate a site on the river’s south bank where a 1960s office building was torn down to make way for the latest Miami vogue — luxury residential skyscrapers.
The 16-month dig, still incomplete, has unearthed thousands of prehistoric indigenous artifacts, some as old as 7,000 years, foundation holes for ancient structures, gravesites, human and animal remains and unusually well-preserved scraps of wood and fiber that should forever put to rest the notion that Miami has no history.
In fact, the discoveries may push back the story of Miami by a few thousands years, to what’s known as the Archaic period, archaeologists say. But scientists and historians have known for decades that an indigenous people known as the Tequesta made their home at the mouth of the river for some 2,000 years.
This is now the third significant prehistoric site that’s been methodically investigated by archaeologist Robert Carr and his scientific and academic collaborators, including perhaps the most recognized place of all — the Miami Circle National Historic Landmark. A fourth important site, where the downtown
Hyatt Regency hotel sits today, was excavated by state archaeologists in the 1970s.
On paper, the City of Miami has strong protections for certain designated archaeological sites where evidence of previous human habitation has been found. It requires developers to carefully explore the sites before building, and to finance extensive excavation when anything of significance is found.
But the city, where real estate is king, has been historically reluctant to stand in the way of developers and use its power to require them to preserve and make space for important finds — and as a consequence many of them lie buried out of public sight and public knowledge.
Spanish settlers in the 16th century described a Tequesta village on the north bank of the river, where they remained, in dwindling numbers as they were decimated by ill treatment and disease, for at least 200 years.
But any obvious traces were long gone by the time Henry Flagler arrived to extend his railroad to the backwater settlement of Miami and build his Royal Palm Hotel in what’s now downtown Miami, at the confluence of the river and Biscayne Bay, and atop a Tequesta burial ground. The bones of the indigenous people buried there were unceremoniously dug up and dumped, but no one knows where. Some bones were sold off as souvenirs by work crews.
Starting in the 1950s, though, professional archaeologists began excavating in the area and, by the 1970s, the finds were being treated more respectfully than in Flagler’s day.
A massive Tequesta midden — the name for ancient refuse heaps where artifacts and other scraps of indigenous life are typically found — was preserved beneath the elevated pool deck under Carr’s supervision.
The midden, which Carr said has not been excavated, will remain undisturbed as the property is redeveloped under a plan approved by voters in November 2022, preservationists say.
In 1998, after developer Michael Baumann bought and demolished an old bayfront apartment complex on Brickell Point, on the river’s south bank, archaeologists working under Carr found 24 postholes in the limestone bedrock that formed a perfect circle 38 feet in diameter, dating back some 2,000 years, along with buried tools, artifacts and human teeth. Scientists concluded it was likely the foundation for a council or ceremonial structure, and the site was promptly named the Miami Circle.
After a public outcry that included protests by Native Americans and schoolkids, Dade Heritage Trust, Miami-Dade County’s leading historic preservation group, sued to freeze development. It was the state and the county, however, and not the city, that eventually stepped in to save the circle. After Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas persuaded commissioners to authorize a lawsuit to seize the property, the developer agreed to sell it to the state for $26.7 million.
The site is today a state park. But the state’s stewardship has come under fire. The state failed to fulfill a promise to find a way to properly exhibit the circle, which is buried under protective soil. The circle is outlined and signs explain the site’s history and significance, but it’s mostly used by Brickell residents starved of green space as a dog park.
In 2014, Carr and a team of archaeologists were digging on the opposite bank of the river, at the former site of Flagler’s Royal Palm, under what had been a surface parking lot for decades in preparation for a portion of the multi-block MetSquare development. They unearthed yet more circles, linear posthole arrangements that may have supported boardwalks, as well as artifacts and human remains.
The finds also included a brick-lined well from
Fort Dallas, the U.S. military installation during the Seminole Wars of the 1800s, a rear stair and other relics from the Royal Palm, and the original river shoreline, later filled in — layers that historians say outline Miami history in one spot.
After yet another public outcry, the city preservation board initially moved to designate and protect the site — slated for a complex comprising movie theaters, a hotel and other commercial development — as a historic landmark, but was blocked by the city attorney. Instead, Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff then proposed mediation between developer MDM and preservationists that, after intense negotiations, produced a “historic” agreement.
The deal required MDM to redesign the complex to enclose two posthole circles at the property’s southwest and northeast corners for protection and display to the public, to install a gallery detailing the site’s history, to put a glass floor over the well, and to retain the Royal Palm remnants.
Eight years later, MDM has largely failed to live up to the agreement, preservationists say. Instead of the promised glass-enclosed gallery and exhibition spaces, the developers left one circle at a building corner open to the air with no explanatory signage, and have not built space to exhibit artifacts or archaeological remnants. MDM officials claim its engineers said enclosing the circle was not feasible.
Part of the fault lies with the city, critics say.
“The city didn’t enforce” the mediation agreement, said Christine Rupp, director of Dade Heritage Trust, one of the parties in the mediation.
After Dade Heritage repeatedly wrote letters of complaint to the city, the preservation office last year finally denied MDM permits to complete the interior at the complex based on its failure to provide the required displays, Rupp said. After the developer took the city to court, a judge told the parties to go back to mediation to resolve their differences, she said.
MDM promised to comply with the terms of the original agreement, including reaching an agreement with the HistoryMiami museum to design and run its exhibits, but appears to still be dragging its heels. The trust and the city are awaiting an engineering report from MDM on the feasibility of enclosing the exposed circle.
To frustrated preservationists and independent archaeologists, the track record of the city and developers when it comes to Miami’s ancient treasures is a failure of imagination and an irresponsible waste of opportunity. Other places, they say, would gladly seize on discoveries of this age and significance to highlight their history and show it off to visitors and residents.
Now, as excavation on the Related property uncovers even more significant finds, scrutiny is mounting on the city and Related, neither of which so far has made any move to preserve any of the site or exhibit the discoveries. In fact, the city preservation office gave the developers clearance to begin preparations for construction on half of the property where excavation has been completed. All trace of the archaeological dig on that portion is already buried under fresh dirt.
“There are models for how development and preservation can coexist,” said William Pestle, an archaeologist and chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Miami. “This area could be a huge attractor. Done right, the Circle and MetSquare and this site together could be a revenue generator, and it could combat this pernicious idea that we have no history.
“People have been living on that spot for almost 8,000 years. This is as old as some cities in Mesopotamia. It’s incredible. There is such a great opportunity that could slip away.”