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Indian burial method intrigues archaeologists

The remains, about five centuries old, were found on the north side of the Miami River.

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

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

Wheeler compared the layered chambers to a "condo or a mausoleum."

The remains, about five centuries old, are likely those of ancestors of the Tequesta tribe that met Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, Wheeler said. The tribe probably kept the bones above ground for some time before mass-burying them - scooping out soil in the fissures or deep natural grooves, burying the bones and then covering the grave, Wheeler said.

Archaeologists have been working on the site, on the north side of the Miami River, since March but first excavated the remains of Henry Flagler's 19th century Royal Palm Hotel, which were on top of the cemetery. A condominium development is planned for the site.

The other cemetery being excavated, on the site of a development on the south side of the river, is much smaller and older. It dates back about 2,000 years, and burials there seem to be more individual, Wheeler said. The cemetery is from the same period as the Miami Circle, a 38-foot circle that Tequestas are believed to have carved into the limestone. It was excavated in 1998. It has been preserved.

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

In the 1980s, archaeologists excavated an extensive village on the north shore of the Miami River.

Archaeologists discovered the two cemetery sites currently under investigation several years ago, when plans for the two developments were under way. They will study and catalog the bones and rebury them on the site. They have been working with the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes to ensure that the sites are treated respectfully.

[Last modified January 13, 2006, 01:45:18]