02/08/2023
A MUST READ!!’
How can the mind boggling discovery A YEAR & A HALF AGO of a 7,000 year old dig at the mouth of the Miami River stay under the public’s radar??!
Apparently Commissioners have not been briefed on the scope of the discovery that should obviously be designated as a historic landmark!!’
Well YESTERDAY scientists & experts aware of the magnitude of importance of this dig, urged the City’s preservation board members to take action towards designating the property an arqueológical site.
So now the political game’s rules just changed - we believe the Commission must make it a mandate to put MIAMI right square in center of mankind’s history .
EXCERPTS:
For the past year and a half, with scant public attention, squads of archaeologists digging at the Miami River site of a planned Related Group residential tower complex have unearthed remarkable finds, consisting of thousands of fragmentary prehistoric tools and artifacts, rare and well-preserved animal and plant remnants, vestiges of ancient structures and human remains — including some relics dating back to the earliest days of civilization on the planet. Independent scientists say the findings, which include 7,000-year-old spearheads, are clear and abundant evidence of a continuous indigenous settlement in the area stretching much farther back in time than previously thought.
“There are artifacts going back sequentially over those thousands of years,” said William Pestle, an archaeologist and chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Miami, who is not involved in the excavation at the Related site but is familiar with the discoveries there. “This is like a continuous record, which is powerful and cool. “You’re going back to the time of the emergence of the first cities in Mesopotamia. It’s thousands of years before the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.
Some critics say they believe the developers and the city have attempted to downplay the discoveries to avoid the kind of public uproar and litigation that led to the preservation of the Miami Circle from condominium development in 1999….
The city officials overseeing the dig, city archaeologist Adrian Espinosa-Valdor and historic preservation director Anna Pernas, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this story on the significance of the findings relayed for several weeks through the city communications office.
In January, frustrated scientists went to the city’s historic preservation board, which has oversight of the excavation and legal power to require concrete action from Related, to plead for greater public exposure and discussion of the dig, its significance and the need to ensure that at least some of the finds are properly exhibited. The board promised a fuller public airing. “The importance of this site cannot be overstated,” Sara Ayers-Rigsby, southeast director for the Florida Public Archaeology Network, which is based at West Florida University in Pensacola, told board members. She urged them to require better public discussion and documentation of the finds. “It’s a story of who we all are and where we come from.”
In an unexpected move, however, the preservation board on Tuesday, by an 8-0 vote, instructed Pernas to begin studying whether they should designate the Brickell site a protected archaeological landmark after Pestle and others showed up at the meeting at Miami City Hall to urge members to take action.
That designation would give the city power to require developer Related Group to preserve all or part of the site or make accommodations in its project for public exhibition, and other measures. Brickell residents also say the city and Related could do much more.
