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.

In 1998, archaeologists uncovered a circle of postholes cut basins into the limestone bedrock at Brickell Point, an archeological site in Miami, Florida. 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 and copper from the Midwest. Since that discovery, twelve other circles have been discovered.

Radiocarbon dates of AD 200–700 indicate a major town associated with the Tequesta, an indigenous tribe that established a complex society centuries before the creation of the City of Miami. The site is also the southernmost prehistoric trade center in the United States.

Learn more about Robert Carr and his work on his website.

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. Ticket includes museum admission.

For information about this talk, contact Chiyo Ueyama at cueyama@mag.rochester.edu.

Image credit: Brickell Point excavation site, Miami, FL, 1998. Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc.