Archaeological and Historical Conservancy

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Hannes Schroeder and Professor Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen successfully reconstructed the full genome of a Lucayan-Taino individual from a thousand-year-old tooth discovered at Preacher’s Cave on Eleuthera in the northern Bahamas. Previous attempts to extract DNA from other samples from archaeological sites across the Caribbean had limited success because of the poor preservation conditions common throughout the tropics. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results indicate that the Lucayan-Taino ancestry can be traced to northern South America. The researchers also found evidence that the Taino, the first indigenous Americans to feel the full impact of European colonization after Columbus arrived in the New World, still have living descendants in the Caribbean today. The tooth that Schroeder and his colleagues used to reconstruct the genome was disc...

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...

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...

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...