Posted on Fri, Jan. 13, 2006
ARCHAEOLOGY
Ancient bones discovered at Brickell development site
Miami Herald staff report

Ancient human bones have been found at the Icon Brickell development site between the Miami Circle and Brickell Park, state archaeologists said Thursday.

The site, until last November the location of the Sheraton Biscayne Bay, sits just south of the Miami River in an area rich with artifacts of the now-extinct Tequesta tribe.

Ryan Wheeler, Florida's state archaeologist, said that scattered bones were found in about half of the 25 excavation sites on the property.

He could not estimate the number of bones or the number of individuals they represent.

He also said remains found at another, much larger site were far more extensive than previously believed. Bones belonging to ''hundreds of individuals'' were recovered from the Metropolitan Miami development on the north side of the river, just west of the InterContinental Hotel.

Wheeler characterized the two ancient sites as cemeteries and said all bones would be reburied in accordance with state law and after consulting with representatives of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.

Oh, boy. I wonder if it's 'here we go again' ?

uh oh looks like those sites are cursed met miami, imagine, a cemetary..

Not again. But why weren't they found back in 78-79 when The Sheraton was being built? Just imagine the amount of stuff buried under the Wachovia.

They found Joan Rivers?

You have to admit that the ancient residents did know about location. Look at the great site they lived at, and how coveted it is now. See how little things change. Also no bones were found at the Dupont site because even 1000 years ago the area was a park and the residents didnt want the view blocked by huts.

No bones were found at the Dupont site because when the Dupont was being built however many decades ago, they cleared out the site completely, taking away, if any, bones and/or artifacts that would've been there. Their proximety to the water is also no fluke. People tend to settle near water, IE, oceans and rivers.

maybe they'll rename it to Poltergeist Icon?...kind of creepy to be living above a former burial ground.

weird lol. i hope construction still goes ahead though. please no more delays.

No bones were found at the Dupont site because when the Dupont was being built however many decades ago, they cleared out the site completely, taking away, if any, bones and/or artifacts that would've been there. Their proximety to the water is also no fluke. People tend to settle near water, IE, oceans and rivers.


Born that was a joke, you must have not read the postings about making the dupont site a park.

Born that was a joke, you must have not read the postings about making the dupont site a park.
Im very sorry, i was doing homework at the time i responded. sorry i took it seriously. lol

Better Story here:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-burial-sites,0,3099141.story

Ancient Remains Found in Downtown Miami

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press Writer
Posted January 13 2006, 8:12 PM EST

MIAMI -- Archaeologists excavating two American Indian burial sites in downtown Miami say they have found hundreds of remains piled in limestone fissures, some of them stacked in stone burial boxes.

The remains are at least five centuries old and likely are the ancestors of the Tequesta tribe that met explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he claimed the land for Spain, archaeologists said.

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"The idea of a crypt-like structure, that's never been observed anywhere in South Florida before," said Robert Carr, director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy.

Bone piles were discovered in at least five fissures on the former site of railroad magnate Henry Flagler's 19th-century Royal Palm Hotel, Carr said Thursday. The site is near a burial mound that was destroyed more than 100 years ago.

Two other burial boxes called ossuaries have been discovered in the area, but they contained the remains of no more than a dozen people, he said.

The tribe probably kept the bones aboveground for some time before burying them in mass -- scooping out soil in the fissures, burying the bones and then covering the grave, State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler said.

"In terms of the rest of Florida, we've never seen anything that's been the same," Wheeler said. "It's a very unusual mode of burial."

Archaeologists have been excavating the site since 2003. A condominium development is planned for it.

The second site under excavation, where another condominium development is being built, dates back about 2,000 years, and burials there appear to be individual, Wheeler said.

The site is near the original shoreline of Biscayne Bay. Carr speculated the Tequestas may have prepared bodies there for burial. The tribe was known to lay bodies on the beach to be "de-fleshed by the crabs and the vultures," he said.

Archaeologists will study and catalog the remains and re-inter them on the same sites.

They have long known that a wealth of archaeological material is buried under downtown Miami.

Archaeologists excavated a village on the north shore of the Miami River in the 1980s. The Miami Circle, a round limestone formation 38 feet in diameter believed to be the foundation of a prehistoric structure of the Tequestas, was discovered in the 1990s.