Archaeological and Historical Conservancy

Egmont Key, which has lost half its area to sea-level rise, was the site of a forced relocation of the Seminole people by the U.S. Army. A few more feet of water would flood 16,000 archaeological sites across Florida. JESSICA LEIGH HESTER MIAMI—When Hurricane Irma sprinted toward Miami-Dade County, Jeff Ransom couldn’t sleep. He wasn’t just worried about gusts shattering windows, or sheets of rain drowning the highway—that’s far from unusual near his home in Broward County, where extreme weather verges on routine, and patches of US-1 are regularly submerged. Ransom, the county archaeologist, was preoccupied with an oak tree and its 350-year-old roots. If the tree capsized with enough intensity, he worried, the flailing roots could dislodge human remains. On a blazing blue morning in early November, weeks after the storm, we trek to the site of the Tequesta Native American burial mound that kept Ransom awake. “All night long, I was just thinking about that oak tree flipping...

Today we received news from Madeline, a teacher regarding an interesting project to revamp their class website letting the students help out with adding some of the content. Claire is one of the students involved in this project, and she have been investigating about Native American history. As part of her research, our website shows up. We are glad to hear that our website has been useful for Claire, who shared the information with her class. She also found the graphic we share here about Native American dwellings. The original source is in this link . It is a pleasure to help, and maybe one day Claire and her class can visit us in one of our archaeological projects, and view in person the material evidences of the Native American history.

The Cuban missile crisis celebrated its 50th anniversary on November 20, 2012. For two days preceding the anniversary a reunion was held of veterans of the four Nike Hercules missile bases constructed in south Florida to counter the Russian nukes in Cuba. The main event was a tour of Section C, a base built on an agricultural holdout in Everglades National Park known as the Hole in the Donut. The hole was finally absorbed into the park, and through the efforts of one veteran, Charles Carter, the base was preserved as a historic site and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, with park rangers assigned to interpret it. AHC staff Bob Carr and Tim Harrington became acquainted with Carter while working on The Everglades , a cultural history of the park recently published by Arcadia. Carter offered the use of his archive of photographs for the last chapter in the book which concludes with the Cold War era. He also invited the authors to attend the reunion as his guests, from wh...

The Archaeological and Historical Conservancy played a major role in the discovery and preservation of the Miami Circle, providing an opportunity for archaeologists and archaeological technicians to uncover the Circle, and donating over $40,000 to the project cost. We also directed the analysis of over 143,000 objects that were recovered from the Circle, many now featured at an exhibition at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida in Miami. The Miami Circle was discovered in September of 1998 during routine archaeological monitoring on a proposed condominium site at the mouth of the Miami River. Miami Circle Showing Circular Posthole Pattern Then Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Director Robert Carr supervised the excavation of several test units which revealed basins cut in the bedrock, each filled with black dirt midden. Surveyor Ted Riggs recognized that the basins formed an arc, and hypothesized that it might be part of a circle. In September 1998, a 40 foot diamete...

After the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy documented the significant sites in and around "Sam Jones" (Aripeka) Seven Islands ─ now Pine Island and Long Key ─ we were instrumental in preventing their destruction and in preserving Long Key as a Broward County Park . Beginning in 2005, AHC consulted on the archaeological management plan for the park and monitored wetland mitigation and construction of trails and buildings. AHC played an integral part in the design of the museum wing for newly constructed Long Key Nature Center , which opened in 2008. Master Plan for Long Key Natural Area The Exhibit Hall interprets the prehistory, history, and ecology of Long Key. A nexus of audio-visual, tactile, and interactive media take the visitor back into the day and the mind of the Tequesta Indians, through the period of European Contact to the Seminole Indians, and up to the turn of the 20th century when anthropologist, M. R. Harrington, conducted the first ...

By Robert S. Carr Gabinete de Arqueología, La Habana, Cuba Thursday, March 30, 9:00am Since 1998, several major discoveries have been made in South Florida, including the “Miami Circle”. This site represents the first evidence found of a prehistoric Tequesta structure cut into the limestone bedrock. The subsequent discovery of eleven similar features in 2005-2014, on the opposite bank of the Miami River confirmed that the ancient town of Tequesta was an elevated village on top of piers rising above the banks of the Miami River. A discovery of postholes on the New River in Fort Lauderdale in February 2017 provides evidence of a similar village pattern, where thousands of well preserved faunal bones and seeds also were discovered. Southern Florida encompassed at least five prehistoric canals. These canals are the longest prehistoric canals outside of Mexico. The AHC recovered radiocarbon samples from two of the canals. Overall, these discoveries demonstrate a stratif...

The Everglades Robert S. Carr, Timothy A. Harrington Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Library Editions Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7385-9127-8 Pubdate: 3/12/2012 Details: 128 pages, 6.7 x 9.6 inches Paperback: $ 20.00 ( contact ) "A must read book for history of the Florida Everglades." --Amazon. The Everglades once blanketed a quarter of Florida. Stretching from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, its saw grass prairies, mangrove swamps, and hammocks were home to a profusion of animals, plants, and prehistoric Native Americans, as well as Seminoles, Miccosukees, and Gladesmen of historic times. In 1904, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward ran for Florida governor with the political platform of creating farmland by dredging the Everglades and spilling its water into the ocean. By 1914, this spectacular natural feature was on the verge of destruction, and environmentalist May Mann Jennings led a grassroots movement to preserve Royal Palm Hammock. In the 1930s, Ernest Coe a...

Digging Miami Robert S. Carr Hardcover ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-4206-0 Pubdate: 9/30/2012  Details: 320 pages, 6.125 x 9.25 Hardcover: $ 25.00 ( contact ) "A wonderful, moving narrative of the archaeology of greater Miami."--Paul George, editor of Tequesta "Amazing. In spite of the intense urban development of Southeast Florida, valuable archaeological contexts are still present and continually being discovered."--Randolph Widmer, University of Houston The pace of change of Miami since its incorporation in 1896 is staggering. The seaside land that once was home to several thousand Tequesta is now congested with roads and millions of people while skyscrapers and artificial lights dominate the landscape. Ironically, Miami's development both continually erases monuments and traces of indigenous people and historic pioneers yet also leads to the discovery of archaeological treasures that have lain undis...

Last year AHC archaeologists found a Caribbean Monk Seal tooth in Palm Beach. Several newspapers echoed the news, including Archaeology Magazine . Another tooth has been found in Tequesta site on the bank of the New River, Fort Lauderdale, showing the dispersal of the extincted Neomonachus tropicalis in prehistoric South Florida.

By Eliot Kleinberg - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer PALM BEACH — No one has seen a Caribbean monk seal for six decades, and nobody’s sighted one in Florida in nearly a century. Now archaeologists say they have found a prehistoric tooth from the extinct animal along the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach. They say it’s the first evidence ever that the seal lived in what’s now Palm Beach County. Caribbean Monk Seal tooth found in Palm Beach Archaeologists from the Broward County-based Archaeological and Historical Conservancy found the tooth this past month, executive director Robert S. Carr told the Palm Beach Post this past week from Davie. He said it’s 500 to 1,000 years old. “We didn’t do carbon dating, but (set its age) just based on the materials around it,” Carr said. He said his group is “99.9 percent sure” it’s from one of the long-gone seals; “the tooth is “very distinctive.” Carr also said i...