Digging in Circles: Miami’s Prehistoric Legacy

Join us for the Archaeological Institute of America’s Spring Lecture, featuring Robert Carr, Director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy!

Archaeological excavations at Brickell Point in 1998, uncovered a circle of postholes and cut basins into the limestone bedrock measuring 11.2 meters in diameter. Within the floor of the feature were a shark skeleton, a bottlenosed dolphin cranium, and a sea turtle shell—all aligned in an east-west axis. Artifacts included numerous non-local materials such as basaltic celts from the Appalachian Mountains, copper from the Mid-West, and galena.

Since that discovery, twelve other circles have been uncovered at the mouth of the Maimi River. Radiocarbon dates of AD 200–700 indicate a major town and trade center associated with the Tequesta, a stratified society that did not practice agriculture but created a complex society based on maritime resources. This is the southernmost prehistoric trade center in the US, 1500 years before the creation of the City of Miami.

To submit a request for ASL interpretation, please email access@mag.rochester.edu at least two weeks before the program.

Ticket sales end on Thursday, April 23, at 7:00 pm. Museum admission is not included in the ticket.

For information about this talk, contact Sydney Greaves at sgreaves@mag.rochester.edu.