Discovery and Preservation of the Miami Circle - Article Example

It was called Bricknell Avenue, named after William Bricknell, the co-founder of Miami. Baumann had to let the site undergo a routine archaeological excavation of the site before he started on his ambitious project to construct a luxury condominium there. The excavation, conducted under Bob Carr revealed a patterned group of holes of various sizes cut into the oolitic limestone. This covered a circular shaped area of 38 feet in diameter. And the excavated earth contained various artifacts like shell tools and stone axe heads. Other crucial discoveries included human teeth and charcoal from fires. According to the diary report of Ryan J Wheeler, one of the archeologists who participated in the excavation, they also found "….some concrete, modern glass, and other construction fill, lower portions produced nineteenth-century materials, including the fragmentary neck of a blown green glass bottle and a wire-wound glass button, probably from a ladies' blouse or jacket" (Wheeler).

A controversy regarding the preservation of the site ensued, especially after the suggestion by Baumann to relocate the circle to another location for which he offered to pay the expenses so that he could pursue the construction of the condominium. But there was a general resentment among the general public which included archaeologists, Native Americans, new agers, and school children. And the State the State of Florida Preservation 2000 land acquisition program had to purchase the disputed site from Bachmann for $26.7 million.

The radiocarbon dating, conducted in 1999 revealed that the wood was 1800 to 2000 years old. John Ricisak a specialist in the County Historic Preservation department confirmed this finding against the skeptical view that the age of the holes cannot be decided from the radiocarbon dating of the wood. However, the argument that the holes belonged to the modern age was further disputed by Tom Scott and Harvey Means, Florida Geological Survey, who brought to light the fact that there was a buildup of calcite duracrust on the edge of the cut face, which cannot happen in the case of modern objects.

The artifacts that were found are supposed to belong to the Tequesta native group which existed before the European settlement of the area. But to come to such a conclusion, other possibilities were to be discounted. There is no proof that native North Americans built such permanent structures so long ago. And the hypothesis that the site could have belonged to the Olmec or Mayan civilizations was more or less ruled out as there was no evidence of any artifact belonging to Central American origin on the site. According to Bob Carr, “Mayan architecture is always rectilinear, except for the observatory in the Yucatan, so nothing about this fits a Mayan connection”. He thinks that the references to Mayan civilization in this context are “just an exotic way to explain it” (Nimnicht). There exists an argument that the holes were postholes of some structure, some sort of foundation for a building. Another hint is that it could have been a burial site, but the excavators could find only a five-foot-long shark skeleton, a dolphin skull, and a complete carapace of a sea turtle. Apart from the four human teeth found on the site, nothing confirmed to the idea that it could have a common burial ground.

The controversy regarding the decision of the State to spend a phenomenal amount on the project reached its height with the hunch by the University of Florida archaeologist Jerald T Milanich that the Circle can be nothing but the septic tank of the previous apartment building there. Bob Carr and John Ricisak had to bring in a lot of evidence and new lines of argument to counter this proposition. Such alternate theories and even speculations like the possibility of aliens and the mythical city of Atlantis remain unproved to date. Though Milanich created a series of controversies through his publication titled “American Scene: Much Ado About a Circle”, he sums it up introspectively, on how Miami Circle has influenced people in general: "Whatever the circle is, or is not, it is encouraging to see so many people step forward when it seems an important archaeological monument is threatened. Because of the Miami Circle, a lot of people have learned a great deal about Native American history and now recognize that we must work together to understand and preserve that legacy" (Milanich).

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